Hemant Mehta is the founder and editor of FriendlyAtheist.com, a YouTube creator, and podcast co-host. He is a former National Board Certified math teacher in the suburbs of Chicago. He has appeared on CNN and FOX News and served on the board of directors for Foundation Beyond Belief and the Secular Student Alliance. He has written multiple books, including I Sold My Soul on eBay and The Young Atheist's Survival Guide. He also edited the book Queer Disbelief.
At some point today, atheists everywhere ought to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a major Supreme Court decision — Engel v. Vitale — that helped get prayer out of public schools. Back then, a school district in New York had students recite this prayer (voluntarily) at the beginning of each school day: “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country.” A group of families sued, saying… Read more
A poe-worthy fundamentalist Islamic group called the Popular Egyptian Islamic Association recently advised followers not to eat tomatoes because they’re just too Christian. I mean, LOOK AT THE CROSS! The group posted a photo on its page of a tomato — which appears to reveal the shape of a cross after being cut in half – along with the message: “Eating tomatoes is forbidden because they are Christian. [The tomato] praises the cross instead of Allah and says that Allah… Read more
It’s not about profiling anyone at the airport. Instead, Harris will be causing a different kind of controversy: The working title of the book is Waking Up: A Scientist Looks at Spirituality. This title could very well change, but this should give you some indication of what I’m up to. My goal is to write a “spiritual” book for smart, skeptical people — dealing with issues like the illusion of the self, the efficacy of practices like meditation, the cultivation… Read more
At the Oklahoma Freethought Convention yesterday, Seth Andrews debuted his latest video — Afterlife — and got a standing ovation from the crowd. Well deserved, too. This is a really beautiful video. A lot of popular YouTube atheists answer the question of how they get through the day knowing there’s no afterlife awaiting them. In short, they show us that a secular life is far from empty or meaningless: Read more
It exists and it’s called Edifi: My favorite part about it is when they try to compare it to a Kindle and Nook… they *know* the quality in the other products is better, but look at what the Edifi has! (Click to enlarge) HA! We have 27 pre-installed Bibles and they have none! Of course, you can always buy one for free from Amazon… but still. PRE-INSTALLED! I feel bad for the poor kid who’s going to get this for… Read more