Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1823

Can Charles Darwin’s Birthday Become a New Holiday?

International Darwin Day celebrates the birth of Charles Darwin (February 12, 1809) by encouraging groups to put on lectures or events educating others about evolution. More generally, the purpose is:

… to inspire people throughout the globe to reflect and act on the principles of intellectual bravery, perpetual curiosity, scientific thinking, and hunger for truth as embodied in Charles Darwin.

Today, they’re relaunching Darwin Day with a new website and logo:

There’s also a brand new vision for...

Mississippi Legislators Want to Make the Bible the Official State Book

It was only a couple of months ago that a group wanted Mississippi to establish Christianity as the state religion.

Now, two state legislators are trying to make the Bible the official State Book.

Rep. Tom Miles of Forest and fellow Democratic Rep. Michael Evans of Preston are spearheading the bill which was proposed last week, according to Evans.

Evans told AL.com that the idea came about while he was speaking with constituents.

“Me and my constituents, we were talking about it and one of them m...

New Bollywood Film’s Hero is a Committed Atheist… Until Lord Krishna Appears To Him In Person

This is a good season for Indian films making light of religious middlemen. Last week, I wrote about PK, a bona fide new blockbuster that ridiculesinterfaithhatred. Now, there’s another contender in the godmen-are-bullshit genre: Gopala Gopala, which premiered in cities across India yesterday.

To get a sense of what it’s about, the trailer is surprisingly inadequate, soread on for the synopsis.

From Bollywood Life:

The story revolves around a businessman, Gopal Rao…, an atheist who makes a livin...

Former Maryland Official Who Wouldn’t Stop Reciting Christian Prayers at Meetings May Become State Senator

Last year, the Carroll County Board of Commissioners in Maryland was told by a judge that they needed to stop praying to Jesus at meetings. That didn’t sit well with Commissioner Robin Bartlett Frazier (below) who ended up saying a religious prayer at the next meeting, anyway, falsely attributing it to President George Washington.

After multiple legal warnings from the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center, and the looming prospect of heavy fines if the prayers contin...

Life is Like a Donut…

Without saying it explicitly, Pablo Stanley does a lovely job in this cartoon explaining how atheists find meaning in life, even though we don’t believe in an afterlife:

You can (and should) read the full strip here.

(via Reddit)

Friendly Atheist Podcast Episode 37: Parisa Tabriz, Google Chrome’s “Security Princess”

Our latest podcast guest is Parisa Tabriz, Google’s self-described “Security Princess,” a euphemism she created in part because “hired hacker” sounds kind of evil.

Parisa’s job is to figure out the problems with Google Chrome and fix them before the bad guys do. That’s a pretty amazing job for anyone, much less a 31-year-old woman, which isn’t exactly the norm in the tech world. Last July, Elle magazine ran a long profile on her.

(Full disclosure: I knew Parisa in high school and we had classes...

Turns Out the Married Pastor Who’s Attracted To Men (but Not Gay) Has an Openly Gay Brother

Last week, we heard the story of Pennsylvania Presbyterian Pastor Allan Edwards, who is attracted to men, but married to a woman and expecting a child with her.

Allan and Leeanne Edwards

One of the responses NPR received after airing that story came from Dexter Edwards — Allan’s younger brother — who is (to my surprise) openly gay.

Dexter had no idea the NPR piece was happening until he read it, but he wanted to speak out because he didn’t want other gay people to be hurt by the message in that...

Pastor Who Bragged About Punching a Kid in the Chest Apologizes (After Removing All Sermon Videos from Vimeo)

The other day, I posted about Pastor Eric Dammann of Bible Baptist Church in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, bragging about how he once punched a bright child in the chest for not taking the Lord seriously enough:

He ended the clip with: “There’s times that that might be needed.”

In the days since that video went viral, Dammann has been trying to do damage control.

He spoke with the Daily Mail:

In a brief statement he said: ‘I would like to say that I do not endorse child abuse or ever will. My ac...

Stephen Fry Reminds Us That Mockery Need Not Be “First Rate” To Deserve Our Strongest Protection

British comedian, orator, and atheistStephen Fry isn’t too impressed by the lateKouachi brothers‘ ability to think things through:

I cannot be sure exactly how many people have seen one or more of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons that “insult” Islam or mock its prophet since the murders, but I should imagine the number is now in the tens of millions. Had the brothers stayed their bloody hands it would have been 60,000 at the very most. Mohammed must be very cross indeed that his two cretinous repres...

Bill Maher Explains Why He’s Openly Secular

The Openly Secular campaign, which encourages non-religious people to say as much publicly, no matter what label they use, just got a nice boost from comedian Bill Maher:

Hi! This is Bill Maher, and when I found out that there was a campaign going on with the name “Openly Secular,” I said, “Hey, sign me up! That’s for me! I’m Openly Secular!”

Now, it seems to me the most obvious decision a person could make in their life: Do I want to make real world policy decided on the basis of proven facts...