Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1803

Madison (Wisconsin) May Include Atheists as a Protected Class in Expanded Anti-Discrimination Bill

The most surprising thing about Madison (Wisconsin) Alderwoman Anita Weier‘s new anti-discrimination proposal may be that it wasn’t already in effect.

Alderwoman Anita Weier

The most significant aspect of the proposal is the protection it would provide the homeless:

Madison’s homeless community faces discrimination in housing and employment, Nazos said. Potential employers often discard applicants who list no address or list job centers or shelters as their address, and landlords usually require...

Is It Ethical for This Atheist to Make a Ton of Money Selling a Bible App?

If you listened to the StartUp podcast recently, you heard host Alex Blumberg conduct a brief interview with Trevor McKendrick (below), who makes a lot of money selling a Spanish-language Bible app. Like $100,000+ a year.

And he happens to be an atheist, which Business Insider‘s Nicholas Carlson explains:

“We don’t believe in Christianity,” he told Blumberg. “We don’t believe in the Bible.”

“I would describe myself as an atheist.”

McKendrick was raised a believer — a Mormon, actually. He attended...

Checkmate, Atheists: Minister Rebuts Viral Stephen Fry Video by “Proving” That Non-Believers Don’t Exist

You and I are here at Friendly Atheist for one reason only: because we secretly believe in God.

Deep down, we all know we hate the Almighty(who istotallyreal) so much that we deny his existence by attackinghim.

Well, Keith Thompson is on to us. After he sawthe viral videoofStephen Fry respondingto a TV interviewer who asks what the comedian would say to God if the two were to meet, Thompson, who runsReformed Apologetics Ministriesin Canada, is convinced that there are no atheists. To prove it b...

Please Support the Work I Do Through This Site

I’ve posted this in the past. If you’ve already responded, there’s no need to do it again. Thanks!

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Over the past couple of years, what began as a personal blog has turned into a hub with several contributors and multiple posts per day. As always, I’d like to continue expanding the reach of this site. That entails bringing on additional contributors with different voices, including more guest posts from people who can offer interesting and different perspectives, creating more YouTube videos,...

A Year Later, Here’s the Real Legacy of the Bill Nye/Ken Ham Debate

It was nearly a year ago when Ken Ham and Bill Nye had their evolution debate. Since then, Ken Ham has repeated that the debate took place in damn near every blog post he’s written and books have been written by the participants. (Nye’s is about the power of science, while Ham’s basically reminds you that the debate took place and summarizes what they both said, which is extremely telling.

In a video posted by Answers in Genesis yesterday, Ham reflected on the debate’s legacy. In truth, the ev...

Actor Val Kilmer, Disputing Cancer Rumors, Is In a Hospital Consulting His “Christian Science Practitioner”

[Disclosure: I wrote a series offourarticlesabout media and advertising for the Christian Science Monitor about15 years ago.]

Val Kilmer (below), the actor who starred in Batman Forever, Top Gun, and Tombstone, was hospitalized a week ago. Details are sketchy, but TMZ reports that Kilmer, a follower ofChristian Science, started bleeding from the throat prior to his hospitalization. According to the site, Kilmer had known something was seriously amiss for the past half a year, but refused medic...

Barbarous Pelvis-Sawing of Pregnant Women In Ireland Was a Longstanding Catholic Specialty, Survivors Say

A brutal, medically unnecessary operation onIrishwomen during childbirth was a predominantly Catholic practice, according to survivors of a so-calledsymphysiotomy. I think I might have preferred the rack.

Via CNN (caution, gruesomedescriptions ahead):

Rita McCann still remembers the day when her joy at the prospect of giving birth to her first child turned into sheer terror. It was December 15th, 1957 when she went into labor at a hospital in Dublin, Ireland. …”I got a local anesthetic and the...

Congressman Jim Himes Introduces Darwin Day Resolution in House of Representatives

For the past couple of years, Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) has introduced a resolution in the House to honor Charles Darwin on his birthday. Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) did the same thing in 2011 before he was voted out of office.

But Holt didn’t run for re-election last year, so the resolution was not a sure thing this time around.

Thankfully, Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) has picked up where Holt left off. Today, he introduced House Resolution 67 (a.k.a. the Darwin Day Resolution) in order to “recognize Charles...

If This Georgia School Board Says Yes to Bible Distributions, Atheists and Satanists Will Be Ready to Join In

The Dougherty County School Board in Georgia may soon have to distribute coloring books from The Satanic Temple if they go through with a proposal to distribute bibles to students. The Gideons made a plea to the board this week to allow them to give away copies of the holy book:

A Gideons representative spoke to Dougherty County school board members Wednesday encouraging them to allow their group to make bibles available to students.

“I think that everyone is for that idea. And man, would it ju...

Simon Singh Wrote a Perfectly Fine Article About Homeopathy, but an Indian Newspaper Rejected it

During a recent trip to India, author and scientist Simon Singh was asked by the editors of the Hindustan Times to write an article about homeopathy. Singh did just that, only to have his piece rejected…

When I finally submitted the article to the Hindustan Times in early January, I was surprised that the person who commissioned article was unhappy with my use of the words bunkum, quackery and pseudoscience in relation to homeopathy. She went on to write: “While we agree that it is important t...