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.
Last week, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said that “atheism is cool” and that’s why the church is having so many problems getting its message across. Yesterday, I responded to that comment in the Washington Post’s On Faith section. In short, I think he’s right about our coolness. But we’re only part of the reason people are running away from religion. An excerpt from the article is below: Atheists, on the other hand, pose a rational opposition. We know… Read more
A few days ago, I posted about a Christian student who said in his high school German class that “being a homosexual is wrong.” That student, Dakota Ary, was suspended after he said that when his teacher, Kristopher Franks, cited him in a disciplinary referral. I defended Ary at the time, but noted that we were only hearing his side of the story… Now, we’re starting to hear the teacher’s side. The Dallas Voice reports what a spokesperson for a… Read more
This is a guest post by Todd Stiefel. Todd is the President and Founder of the Stiefel Freethought Foundation. For background on this letter, I suggest reading posts here and here. In short, the American Cancer Society rejected the Foundation Beyond Belief’s National Team for this year’s Relay For Life events. There is good reason to believe that, if we had that opportunity to contribute to a National Team, atheists and Humanists around the country could have raised at least… Read more
What happens when your plan to give non-violent criminals the option of going to church instead of jail makes its way into the media? Everyone complains. The media calls. You realize this plan isn’t going to go under-the-radar like you had hoped. That’s why Police Chief Michael Rowland in Bay Minette, Alabama is reconsidering his idea… or, in his words, he’s “running it back through” with an attorney: Implementation of a church-based alternative sentencing plan in Bay Minette that has… Read more
Alright, I’ll admit I don’t know what they plan to teach or research… but at least their goals are promising? The Atheist Centre [in India] will open the country’s first atheism university and research centre, coinciding with the centenary celebrations of social activist Saraswathi Gora on Wednesday. The centre had been promoting a casteless society with a scientific outlook to help remove superstitions on a path shown by popular atheist Goparaju Ramachandra Rao (Gora). No castes? Less superstition? More science?… Read more
