Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1806

Choose Joy for Harper

This is a guest post by Amanda Metskas. She is the Executive Director of Camp Quest.

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Death is hard.

A few weeks ago, I accompanied my friend Neil Wehneman, the Secular Student Alliance’s Development Director, to the memorial service for his niece Harper.

Harper and Neil

Harper was nine years old. She was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer a year and a half ago. She fought hard and found reserves of bravery and joy that inspired the people in her life. I wish I had gotten to meet this amazing young w...

Indio Mayor Eliminates Invocations at City Council Meetings: “We Need to Respect All Beliefs and Absence of Beliefs”

Indio, California Mayor Lupe Ramos Watson (below) has made the unusual (but welcome) decision to eliminate invocation prayers from city council meetings:

[Ramos Watson] is forgoing an invocation because she does not believe that prayer-like practice is appropriate for a government meeting.

“Members of the community reached out to me and told me that they felt excluded during the invocation,” said Ramos Watson, who made a similar decision when she was mayor in 2011.

“In absence of a city law rega...

Sparing Us 18 Months of References to His Mormon Faith, Mitt Romney Nixes a Third White House Run

Barely two weeks ago, Mitt Romney, threatening to run for President again,indicated that hisroadto the White House would be paved with expressions ofhis faith.

False alarm: He’s not running.

Mitt Romney told supporters Friday that he would not run for president in 2016, ending three weeks of public speculation and sparing the Republican Party a potentially bruising nominating battle between its past nominee and its rising stars.

“After putting considerable thought into making another run for pre...

Reverend Roy Harriger Guilty of Sexually Assaulting His Own Grandchildren… But Luckily, God Has Forgiven Him

This news articletells us only half of what’s relevant.

Jurors in Orleans County [New York] have found a pastor guilty of molesting two of his own grandchildren.

Roy Harriger, 71, most recently the pastor of a Niagara county church, is accused of molesting three of his grandchildren when they were little kids [he was found not guilty on charges relating to the third child]. This happened more than 12 years ago when he was a pastor of a church in Lyndonville in Orleans County.

Unusually enough, H...

New Survey Shows Huge Gaps Between General Public and Scientists Over Evolution, Climate Change, GMOs, and More

A new survey released yesterday by the Pew Research Center in collaboration with the American Association for the Advancement of Science shows that there’s a huge disconnect between professional scientists and the general public.

You knew that, of course, but the numbers are striking in certain areas.

Like when it comes to scientific consensus on established theories like the Big Bang, evolution, and climate change. Check out what the general public says about whether scientists agree on these...

Woman Who Vandalized Satanic Display in Florida Capitol Says Being Punished Would Be an Attack on Her Faith

Last month, we learned that The Satanic Temple’s display in the Florida State Capitol Building had been vandalized.

It turned out that the vandal was Susan Hemeryck, a 54-year-old Tea Party activist who wore a shirt with the phrase “Catholic Warrior” on it.

Susan Hemeryck (via Leon County Sheriff’s Office)

At the time, she said this about her crime:

[Hemeryck] had only one regret about Tuesday’s incident.

‘I just yanked that little devil off the fishing line,’ she said. ‘I should have just done a...

Atheist Billboard in Alabama Gets Taken Down Two Weeks Early Following Complaints from Local Residents

Earlier this month, the following billboard went up in Mobile, Alabama (along with other billboards in two other cities) to mark the launch of the Gulf Coast Coalition of Reason:

While the contract said the billboard would be up for a month beginning around Christmas, the placement of that ad was actually delayed by two weeks.

Delays happen. So the simple solution would be to keep the billboard up for an extra two weeks to make up for the lost time, right?

That’s not what Lamar Advertising is do...

Jim Parsons Will Play God on Broadway

Back in April, we learned that David Javerbaum, the former head writer of The Daily Show who brilliantly channels God on Twitter as @TheTweetOfGod, was going to take his character to Broadway in a play based off of his book The Last Testament.

It was just revealed that Jim Parsons (below), better known as Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, will play the role of God:

So a gay actor who plays a fictional atheist physicist on TV will take on the role of God on Broadway.

Christian conservatives...

The American Family Association Can’t Sever Its Connection with Bryan Fischer That Easily

It’s been fascinating watching the American Family Association work hard to suddenly distance themselves from the most vocal bigot on their payroll, Bryan Fischer (below). Even though they stripped him of his direct connections to the group the other night, he continues to host his show Focal Point under AFA’s umbrella.

This week, the AFA asked the Southern Poverty Law Center to stop attributing Fischer’s hateful comments to them, to which SPLC President Richard Cohen responded with a more tac...

About.com Appears to Have Said Goodbye to Its Anti-Vaxxer Health Expert

A few days ago, I posted about the new “Adrenal Health Expert” at About.com, Dr. Josh Axe (below).

He promoted a lot of questionable products and ideas, in my opinion, but the biggest problem was that his personal site warned against the supposed dangers of vaccines. He was an anti-vaxxer being touted as a health “expert.”

I still haven’t heard back from About.com despite my inquiry. However, after that posting went up, company CEO Neil Vogel tweeted and retweeted a couple of pro-vaccine messag...