Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1673

To the Media Who Promoted Faux “Wellness Guru” Belle Gibson​: No, You​ Don’t Get to Criticize Her Lack of Apology

Kylie Willey was suffering the agony of cancer and the sickness of chemotherapy when a friend told her of a true miracle. Sweet, young,and lovely fellow Australian Belle Gibson (below) had recently enchanted national media with her inspiring story of healingmultiple terminal cancers by quitting chemotherapy and switching tothings that feel“good and nurturing.”

(Image from 9 News on YouTube)

The26-year-old’s holistic-lifestyleblog, book, and phone app,all titled The Whole Pantry, advised cancer...

Glenn Beck: God’s Our Dad and He’s Coming Upstairs! We Better Have Our Teeth Brushed and Pajamas On!

Over the weekend, Glenn Beck spoke at Pastor Ed Young‘s Fellowship Church in Texas. While most of the storylines were about how Beck, a Mormon, was speaking at a Christian megachurch — heresy! — I’m more interested in the content of his sermon. And Beck did not disappoint.

He explained how God’s relationship with us is sort of like his own relationship with his kids. When it’s time for his children to brush their teeth and go to bed, they better be ready for him! (Watch at the 20:45 mark)

The L...

Kentucky Newspaper Editor Laments Publishing Same-Sex Marriage Announcments

Bowling Green, Kentucky is a small town known for a few things. It’s where Western Kentucky University is located. It’sthe formerhome of filmmaker John Carpenter. It has a pretty cool Corvette museum. It also, as recent developments have demonstrated, is host to a news organization that has completely abandoned the concept of journalistic integrity.

The Bowling Green Daily News published the following announcement on its website yesterday:

This newspaper has always believed that marriage is bet...

Denmark’s New Minister of Science is a Creationist

Esben Lunde Larsen was appointed the new Minister of Higher Education and Science in Denmark last week. He’s now responsible for overseeing research in the country.

But the most concerning thing about his appointment, as we’re finally learning, is that he’s a Creationist. Not necessarily in the Ken Ham/Six Day Creation mold, but still pretty awful:

When asked by Jyllands-Posten whether humans are descended from apes, the 36-year-old from the so-called Bible belt near Rinkøbing answered that the...

Conservatives Are Mad Because President Obama Didn’t Say “God” in His Fourth of July Address

What does President Obama have to do to convince people he’s a Christian? You’d think his rendition of “Amazing Grace” at a black church the other week might have swayed the doubters a bit… but that’s giving them too much credit.

During his Weekly Address, Obama wished everyone a happy and safe Fourth of July, expressed support for the U.S. Women’s National Team before their World Cup championship game, and spoke about the sacrifices of the men and women in the military… but he didn’t mention...

Mike Huckabee: The Problem with Gay Marriage is That It’s All About Love

You know what the real problem with marriage is these days?

According to GOP Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, it’s that marriage is all about silly things like “love” and “feeling” and “sentimentality.” (When it should be about… um… signing a contract and throwing in a dowry?)

He went on to tell CNN’s Jake Tapper that too many people see marriage as a “selfish means of pleasing self” instead of committing yourself to make your partner happy.

Someone should tell Huckabee that the gay and les...

TheraminTrees Explains His Journey Out of Faith in This Beautiful Video

“Atheism happened to me when I wasn’t looking. Theism happened to me when I wasn’t thinking.”

And with that, TheraminTrees begins his latest video explaining his personal journey away from religion:

(Thanks to Edward for the link)

Does Prayer Actually Help?

The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses whether prayer actually helps.

A rough transcript of the video can be found on the YouTube page in the “About” section.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the project — more videos will be posted soon — and we’d also appreciate your suggestions as to which questions we ought to tackle next!

And if you like what you’re seeing, please consider supporting this site on Patreon.

Matthew O’Neil Sings “Good Without God”

Matthew O’Neil just released a short album featuring songs with a godless bent:

Here’s one of the tracks, “Good Without God“:

Gravity by Matthew

I’m good, I’m good without God
I don’t need morality sent from above
And I’m good, I’m good without God
I don’t need to live by supernatural laws

Nice! The three-track album is just $2 if you like what you’re hearing.

The Religious Right Isn’t Going to Win the Bakery Wars

As the Religious Right freaks out about their rights to freedom of speech and religion being trampled, an odd proving ground has emerged: bakeries.

As joyous same-sex couples began to plan their nuptials over the past several years, they’ve found themselves running into unmitigated bigotry during their attempts to procure extravagant confections, with bakers denying them service over opposition to their “sinful” ways.

One such case has played out in Oregon, where it’s illegal to discriminate on...