Hemant Mehta on eight years of atheism writing, pro-life atheists, and catching up with Christians

Chris Stedman | Jun 26, 2014

Eight years ago this month, Hemant Mehta—a high school math teacher, author of several books including The Young Atheist’s Survival Guide, and host of “The Atheist Voice” web series—launched a blog called The Friendly Atheist. Today, it’s one of the most widely read atheist websites in the world.

I spoke with Mehta about what he’s learned by writing about the nontheist movement for eight years, how the movement has changed, the challenge of pro-life atheists, and how atheists can catch up to Christians in charitable giving. In part two of our interview, which will go up tomorrow (Update: it’s here), Mehta discusses his religious childhood, how his family has responded to his activism, why he’s led efforts to raise money for churches, and how atheists can challenge anti-atheist bias.

Chris Stedman: What have you learned over the last eight years of writing about atheist, agnostic, and Humanist communities?

Hemant Mehta: I’ve seen those groups expand and diversify. Compared to several years ago, there is so much more involvement today from people of color, women, students, and parents. We’ve also moved beyond the simple question of “Does God exist?” Now we talk a lot more about what that means: How do we raise our children without faith? How can we become more effective as a voting bloc? None of that is to suggest we’re doing it perfectly, only that we’re doing better than we used to.

http://chrisstedman.religionnews.com/2014/06/26/friendly-atheist-hemant-mehta-eight-years-pro-life-atheists-christians/

Part 2:

http://chrisstedman.religionnews.com/2014/06/27/friendly-atheist-stigma-churches/