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.
Chris McCoy launched a campaign to raise $50,000 for charity via GiveBack. He asked people at /r/atheism to help him out… and he won! What’s more impressive is that he didn’t start the 100-day contest until Day 92: With only a week remaining, Chris knew he needed to work fast and work smart. The 29 year-old saw the contest as an opportunity to support causes he is interested in, specifically organizations without religious affiliations which support children and communities in… Read more
Thanks, Jesse, for the kind post yesterday. (Which went up without my knowledge, you sneaky devil…) Anyway, like he said, at the Secular Student Alliance conference last night, I was presented with the Freethought Backbone Award. I’ve watched this award given to several people before and I’m pretty humbled to have been the recipient this year: I thought readers might like to know what I said (since the video’s not available yet), so here’s the copy of my speech as… Read more
Yesterday, NPR’s “The Kojo Nnamdi Show” dedicated much of the episode to a discussion about atheism (click LISTEN at the top of the page to hear it). You can download the podcast directly through this page, too. I haven’t heard the discussion, but it features Amanda Knief (Secular Coalition for America), Roy Speckhardt (American Humanist Association), and Edwin Kagin (American Atheists) so I’m guessing the discussion was positive and a chance for the stereotypes against us to be knocked down…. Read more
When comedian Ricky Gervais had the chance to be on the cover of a recent issue of Rolling Stone, he submitted a picture of himself as a sad clown with a gun in his mouth… and he considered submitting this alternative (just in case a suicidal clown was too offensive): (Photo by Nadav Kander) For some reason, the editors didn’t like either one… and they went with Rihanna instead: Too bad. Atheist Jesus would have made for a hell of… Read more
If pastors knew they were going to be called out every time they told a demonstrable lie in the pulpit, would their sermons change? What if a buzzer went off every time they asserted something even they didn’t fully accept? How many pastors says things just because it’s what the people want to hear? (via nakedpastor) Read more
