Hemant Mehta is the founder and editor of FriendlyAtheist.com, a YouTube creator, and podcast co-host. He is a former National Board Certified math teacher in the suburbs of Chicago. He has appeared on CNN and FOX News and served on the board of directors for Foundation Beyond Belief and the Secular Student Alliance. He has written multiple books, including I Sold My Soul on eBay and The Young Atheist's Survival Guide. He also edited the book Queer Disbelief.
Under Jewish law, on the Sabbath (Friday night to Saturday night), you’re not supposed to carry any of your possessions between private domains (like your home) and public domains (like outside your home). But what if you want to take your baby to synagogue? What if you want to carry your keys from inside your home to outside where your car is parked? You can’t do it. Jewish law forbids it. But Orthodox Jews figured out a loophole. All they have to do is turn a “public” domain into a “private” one and problem solved! They accomplish this by creating an eruv (AY-roov). An eruv is essentially a gated community built using poles and string. You put up the poles all around a city, connect them with a string, and you’ve created a brand new giant domain. Orthodox Jews can roam and carry items freely within that space, even on the Sabbath! Read more
The other day, I posted about a Godly resolution passed by the Winfield City Council (in Alabama) that was suggested and endorsed by Mayor Randy Price (below). The resolution declared Winfield a “City Under God” with God as the city’s “owner.” Well, Al.com reporter Kelly Kazek contacted Price after all of this blew up to get his take on it — and he seems shocked that there’s now backlash to what he thought was a great decision: Read more
A few years ago, Steven Hewett, a former police officer and veteran of the war in Afghanistan (where he received a Combat Action Badge and a Bronze Star), took a stand against a Veterans’ Memorial in King, North Carolina, where he had lived since 1999: What’s wrong with that memorial? All the ways it promotes Christianity. Like this Christian flag that was one of eleven surrounding the memorial: Read more
For a while now, the Atheists of Butte County (in California) have been urging the Chico City Council to let them deliver invocations at meetings. After a lot of attempts — and some potential legal threats — the council finally agreed to let atheists speak at three separate meetings this year. The first of those meetings was last night, and group leader George Gold (in hat, below) gave a wonderful invocation: Read more