Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1824

It’s Time for Conservative Christians To Take Responsibility For Transphobia

LGBT advocates are still grieving — will long be grieving — the loss of Leelah Alcorn, a 17-year-old transgender girl who committed suicide partly because of her religious parents’ rejection of her identity. Her death has reignited a national conversation about the struggles transgender youth face, and the devastating effects that can result when they aren’t met with love and support.

But all sensitivity is lost on the religious right, who are jumping to prove that Leelah’s death was the resul...

Iowa House Republicans Begin New Legislative Session Using Gavel with Bible Verse On It

The Iowa State House just began its new legislative session today by swearing in new members and the House Republicans (in the majority) tweeted out this picture of the gavel they’re using:

Exodus 33:19 reads:

Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

The Iowa GOP: Beginning the new year by exalting Christianity and igno...

Saudi Cleric: Snowmen Are Anti-Islamic; Supporter Says They Promote Lustiness and Eroticism

You thought cartoons depicting Muhammad were the low point for fundamentalist Muslim rage?

Turns out snowmen piss off one “prominent Saudi Arabian cleric,” too:

Blasphemous! And already beheaded…

Asked on a religious website if it was permissible for fathers to build snowmen for their children after a snowstorm in the country’s north, Sheikh Mohammed Saleh al-Munajjid replied: “It is not permitted to make a statue out of snow, even by way of play and fun.”

Quoting from Muslim scholars, Sheikh Mun...

Are There Limits To Multiculturalism? Jerry Coyne, Ripping Into Apologist Reza Aslan, Says Absolutely

In the wake of the attack onCharlie Hebdo, Jerry Coyne sticks his neck out witha new piece about multiculturalism. The object ofhis ire is Reza Aslan, theMuslim scholar, who put in a performance at CNNthe other day during which he apportioned blame for Wednesday’s violence to France’s ostensible failure to embracemulticulturalism,rather than faulting thetenets of radical Islam.

After quoting Aslan’s words at length,Coyne observesthat there are two kinds of multiculturalism, one of which is tox...

Duck Dynasty‘s Lisa Robertson Says She’s Pro-Choice as Long as Other Women Choose to Never Have Abortions

I always notice when anti-abortion advocates talk about how, when they were pregnant, they chose to keep the child, and look how much better things are!

They fail to see the irony in their statement. They had a choice, and they’re happy with their choice, and they want to persuade others to choose the same thing… but if their choice is to have an abortion? Then the government needs to step in and stop them.

That’s the gist of the recent conversation between HuffPost Live‘s Nancy Redd and Duck D...

Vive La France! Four Million French March Against Terrorist Violence, the Largest Demonstration in the Country’s History

This week, one million copies of Charlie Hebdo will be printed. That’s only one copy for every four demonstrators who took to the streets of Paris and other French cities yesterday.

World leaders joined nearly 4 million people in the streets of Paris and around France Sunday, in solidarity with the victims of a terror spree last week that killed 17 people. …French officials said it was the largest street demonstration in the country’s history.

It may have been the largest peaceful gatheringever...

Should We Mock Religion?

The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses whether we should mock religion.

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.

The Treachery of Images: Charlie Hebdo Before the Massacre

Via the New York Times, here’s a video peek into the editorial process at the French satirical paper, filmed in 2006. EditorStéphane Charbonnierand his staff are putting together a Mohammed cover, in solidarity with the embattled cartoonists for the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

Left: “How to respect the image of Mohammed… without wiping out.” Right, an homage to René Magritte: “This is not a caricature of the prophet.”

Egyptian Sentenced to Three Years in Prison for Admitting on Facebook That He’s an Atheist

According to the international news agency Agence France-Presse, 21-year-old Karim al-Banna was sentenced to three years in prison for the “crime” of saying on Facebook that he was an atheist:

[Lawyer Ahmed] Abdel Nabi said his client’s father had testified against his son, charging that he “was embracing extremist ideas against Islam”.

Banna’s name had appeared in a list of known atheists in a local daily after which his neighbours harassed him, said Ishaq Ibrahim, a researcher on religion and...

Kansas City Star Reports on Growing Atheist Communities

The Kansas City Star has an excellent — and long — article up about the Kansas City Oasis, a local community for freethinkers:

“The sad part of leaving [church] is you don’t have that weekly connection, you lose the community environment,” says [executive director Helen] Stringer, who has a professional organizing business.

“There are a lot of people in church pews who don’t believe any of it, but they want to belong,” she says. “It’s their community. And in our culture, church has a monopoly o...