Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1762

ABC’s Nightline Shines Light on Child Sex Abuse at Jehovah’s Witnesses

The story is painfully familiar. Children are sexually abused in a closed-off cult that is averse to secular justice. The victims either don’t dare accuse their influential tormentors, or, if they do, no one believes them.If the leaders can finally be convinced that the abuse took place,the offenders receivea slap on the wrist; and within a few months or years, as scrutiny slackens, the abuse cycle begins anew, with fresh prey.

ABC Nightline presents the case of Candace Conti, now in her 20s,...

NFL Star Antrel Rolle: God Told Me to Sign with the Chicago Bears by Sending Me an Email from Orbitz

You know how I know God doesn’t exist?

Because no loving God would ever tell an NFL safety to sign with the Chicago Bears.

But that’s what Antrel Rolle just did — for three years and $11.25 million — and just wait till you hear why he signed the contract:

Rolle said that many teams showed heavy interest, but a message from God ultimately helped make the decision for him. He was looking for a sign, and he got one. On Monday morning, at 4:33 a.m., the veteran received an email on his phone. It was...

12-Year-Old Boy Was a Normal Schoolkid in France Last Year; Now He’s an ISIS Executioner

Killing for Allah canrun in the family:

Schoolchildren in southern France are in shock after seeing a former classmate executing a hostage in a video released by the Islamic State (ISIS). The Islamist group posted online gruesome propaganda video showing a boy in military fatigues shooting anIsraeli-Arab teenagerin the head. The [victim]had been accused of working for Israel’s spy agency Mossad.

In the video the child, aged 11 or 12,is flanked by a bearded man, who is believed to be his stepfat...

I Have Serious Concerns About “We Are Atheism”

In 2011, a website called We Are Atheism was founded to “promote education, activism, and philanthropy about atheists and for atheists.” The co-founders, Amanda Brown and her husband Adam Brown, also began a project for non-religious people modeled after the “It Gets Better” campaign. (I even made a video for them.)

Then, at the end of 2012, Sandy Hook happened.

In response, We Are Atheism immediately began raising money to help families affected by the shootings (and the Newtown community at l...

Finnish Band Nightwish Releases Latest Single, Featuring Narration by Richard Dawkins

The Finland-based symphonic metal band Nightwish is about to release their new album, drawing inspiration from the natural world and the work of Richard Dawkins. (In fact, Dawkins appears on the album as a narrator for two of the songs.)

I posted the first single last month. Today, they released their latest single (audio only), “Shudder Before The Beautiful,” and it’s one of the songs featuring Dawkins (albeit briefly):

Endless Forms Most Beautiful comes out in North America on March 31.

(Thank...

Reddit’s Biggest Atheism Hangout Scores Sky-High For Toxic Content and Bigotry, Data Analysts Say

On Friday, I published a moderately unkindcomment about Reddit; I said that while I love Reddit warts and all,its content is 80to90percentdross. Mostly, that referred to the atheism subreddit(or r/atheism, in Reddit-speak). I visit the place five or six days a week,and there is always a lot of junk to wade through: fromrickety, poorly-worded argumentstorepetitions of old news stories that had already been posted days or weeks earlier. Also, of course, there’s a delugeof low-quality memes.

Whil...

Mother’s Day Threatened by Same-Sex Marriage, Claims Irish Senator; Already “Banned” in Some U.S. States

Ireland’s Fidelma Healy Eames, a socially-conservative senator, tweeted yesterday that Mother’s Day might just cease to exist if gay couples are allowed to get hitched.

Happy Mothers’ day all! Hope we can continue to celebrate it after #SSM passed. In some US states Mothers & Father’s Day banned #pcgonemad

Back in the real world, there isn’t a single state in the union where either day, or the celebration of it, has been banned.

But that’s not to say it couldn’t happen. If gay couples can get ma...

According to This Guy, Evolution is a Myth because We Can’t Explain the Planet Mercury

I thought I had heard all the bad arguments Creationists use to discredit evolution: Calling it “evilution,” talking about “missing links,” and there are the 3209412 arguments from ignorance.

But Alan Horvath, whose website tells you pretty much everything you need to know about him, offers a new reason in the video below: The planet Mercury destroys evolution:

The argument is that Mercury is too dense for the evolutionary model to explain… even though there are theories everywhere.

Essentially,...

The Hotline Project: A Number You Can Call if You’re Having Religious Doubts

The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, explains the Hotline Project, a toll-free number you can call if you’re having doubts about your faith.

You can read more about the Hotline Project here.

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,...

New York Minister Terrifies Motorists By Driving Drunk in the Holland Tunnel, Hitting the Curb, Stopping Repeatedly

If God was her co-pilot, He must’ve been napping.

An Episcopalian minister was nabbed with an open bottle of vodka and prescription meds inside her car after she was allegedly spotted driving drunkenly through the Holland Tunnel Friday night, Port Authority police said.

Diane Reiners, 53, was swerving in her 2004 orange Toyota and hitting the curb inside the tunnel, at times coming to a full stop, as she traveled from Manhattan to New Jersey around 6 p.m., authorities said.

Panicked drivers call...