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.
Get this: A Christian is complaining because his high school’s (voluntary after-school) choir is singing a song that includes the phrase “There is no truth except Allah”: James Harper, a senior at Grand Junction High School in Grand Junction, put his objection to singing “Zikr,” a song written by Indian composer A.R. Rahman, in an email to Mesa County School District 51 officials. When the school stood by choir director Marcia Wieland’s selection, Harper said, he quit. “I don’t want… Read more
Last week, I mentioned how the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors in Virginia began each meeting with a prayer to Jesus Christ. An anonymous woman had sued the city in response — but a judge ruled that the only way for the lawsuit to proceed was if she revealed her identity. In a country where atheists can get harassed for simply suggesting, “If people want to pray, they should do it privately, not during the taxpayers’ time,” it’s no surprise… Read more
***Update***: Commenters are quick to point out that Ken Ham has no problem asking people to vote for the Creation Museum in the poll — that’s ethical and perfectly fine to him. But when atheists tell people to vote against it, we’re “unethical” and “intolerant.” How’s that for hypocrisy? … Ken Ham is *furious* with atheists: For atheists, there really is no basis for their ethics, therefore they believe they can do whatever they want if they can get away… Read more
***Update***: The Patch has a wonderful timeline of what happened during the meeting. … After a night filled with speeches by Christians who don’t understand that public high schools are not proxies for churches, the Cranston School Committee voted 5-2 in favor of NOT appealing Judge Ronald R. Lagueux’s decision to take down the Prayer Banner. That means the banner will come down for good: The banner, put up in 1963, has been covered since a federal judge last month… Read more