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.
Remember when the state of Georgia accidentally put “In God We Trust” on certain license plates and then included them in the lineup during a vote? They had to conduct a revote because the motto wasn’t actually included on the plates — it was just an optional $1 tag you could put on your own plate. Now, State Sen. Bill Heath (R-Bremen) wants to make “In God We Trust” a permanent fixture on all state license plates: Motorists can already… Read more
We know people don’t like atheists. Researchers at the University of Minnesota told us in 2006 (PDF) that “atheists are less likely to be accepted, publicly and privately, than any others from a long list of ethnic, religious, and other minority groups.” But why is that the case? University of British Columbia psychologist Will Gervais along with his colleague Ara Norenzayan and Azim F. Shariff (U of Oregon) think they have the answer: “anti-atheist prejudice is particularly motivated by distrust.”… Read more
Charles P. Pierce’s Grantland piece on the Penn State Child Raping Scandal may be the most powerful article yet about the crimes that took place — and why prayer, moments of silence, and playing football are the wrong solutions: It no longer matters if there continues to be a football program at Penn State. It no longer even matters if there continues to be a university there at all. All of these considerations are trivial by comparison to what went… Read more
Atheist signs and billboards get vandalized for all sorts of reasons — like when the culprits see the message as “too aggressive,” even when it’s something as innocuous as “Are you good without God? Millions are.” But this is a new one: Someone has ruined the Western North Carolina Atheists’ “Adopt-a-Street” signs: Why target those signs? Who knows… maybe they hate atheists. Maybe they love litter. Maybe they think atheists will disappear if you smudge the A-word off of signs?… Read more
This may be my favorite billboard campaign yet. Back in August, the McElroy Road Church of Christ put up this billboard in Ohio: Wha…? Sure, we all know what they’re trying to say, but at first glance, it looks like they paid money to spread an atheistic message. In fact, the Mid Ohio Atheists started getting credit for putting it up! Hilarity ensued all around. Well, now the Mid Ohio Atheists are putting up their own billboard… and they decided… Read more