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 Pastor Terry Jones, the guy who wanted to burn a Koran on 9/11 last year? Looks like his church may be on the move… from Gainesville, Florida to Fort Myers, about 250 miles away: Jones acknowledged his church received a lot of negative publicity in the past couple years, and admits the church’s beliefs weren’t as accepted in Gainesville. He said he thinks Fort Myers will be a more welcoming environment. “We’re not concerned about that,” he said. “We… Read more
A poem from Shel Silverstein’s forthcoming (and posthumous) book Every Thing On It YESEES AND NOEES The Yesees said yes to anything That anyone suggested. The Noees said no to everything Unless it was proven and tested. So the Yesees all died of much too much And the Noees all died of fright, But somehow I think the Thinkforyourselfees All came out all right. (via NYTimes) Read more
Last week, I read a post on Reddit from a guy who only saw the final Harry Potter movie but recreated his own version of the entire series’ plot based off that limited knowledge. He was joking around, but it showed how you might miss out on some major details of the full story if you only catch glimpses of it. I bring that up because of Jamie Bernstein. You all know Jamie. She’s written a few guest posts here,… Read more
You know those Saturday Night Live sketches in which Kristen Wiig plays a woman who has to one-up everybody she meets no matter how absurd it gets? Well, here’s what the Fundamentalist Christian version of that character would look like: You don’t believe in kissing before you’re married? Well I don’t believe that married people should be intimate on their wedding night either. That time should be spent in prayers for their marriage and asking to be blessed with children… Read more
One of the hardest (and most important) things we can do as atheists is come out of the closet and let people know what we stand on the god hypothesis. We’ve seen studies that show that prejudice against atheists decreases as people know (or even just think) there are more of us out there. We’ve also seen billboards with messages urging those who are already atheists to make themselves known — instead of trying to “deconvert” people who are religious…. Read more
