553 episodes
Friendly Atheist Podcast Friendly Atheist Podcast
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- Religion & Spirituality
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4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
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Hemant Mehta and Jessica Greiff cover the latest news, politics, and pop culture with a focus on atheism and religion.
This is the official podcast for FriendlyAtheist.com.
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Southern Baptist Membership Drops (Again)
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Jessica and I spoke about several stories from the past week involving religion and politics.
— A high school artist called out Christian bigotry. Her school board is furious. (1:33)
— Southern Baptist membership dropped yet again to a 47-year low (17:48)
— A pastor who was "betrothed" to a child, then abused her, is finally in custody. (34:10)
— Lying preacher John MacArthur: "There's no such thing" as PTSD, OCD, and ADHD. (50:45)
— The Boy Scouts, despite its "inclusive" rebranding, will still exclude atheists. (1:03:19)
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Liquor License in the Bible Belt
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Jessica and I spoke about several stories from the past week involving religion and politics.
— Despite pastor's opposition, Georgia man gets OK to open liquor shop near churches. (0:30)
— The United Methodist Church reversed its ban on gay clergy. Will it matter? (12:25)
— A beloved Alabama principal may have lost her job because she has a girlfriend. (33:22)
— Kentucky mayor lashes out after criticism of his "Prayer Breakfast" event. (42:07)
— Preacher gets unearned praise after calling Trump Bible "disgusting" & "blasphemous." (51:25)
— Doug Wilson has ludicrous ideas for how the U.S. could become a Christian Nation. (1:02:15)
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Corporal Punishment and Christianity
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Jessica and I spoke about several stories from the past week involving religion and politics.
— What I'll remember about Daniel Dennett. (0:28)
— Catholic priest resigns after backlash involving his criticism of a gay author. (8:43)
— Christian lawmaker says teachers should be allowed to hit special needs students. (24:38)
— A Christian ministry urged the Supreme Court to criminalize homelessness. (46:03)
— Māori atheists say Christian colonization helped push them away from the faith. (1:01:59)
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Christian Men's Conference Descends Into Chaos
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Jessica and I spoke about several stories from the past week involving religion and politics.
— Christian Men's Conference descends into chaos over sword-swallowing acrobat. (1:02)
— Wisconsin official blames homelessness on "sin," then votes against aid for the poor. (25:15)
— Christian Nationalist falsely claims Satanist chaplains "don't qualify" to work in schools. (39:27)
— Tennessee declares Aitken Bible one of its "official state books." (53:37)
— North Dakota GOP endorses Christian theocrat to run the state's public schools. (1:07:06)
— Louisiana High Court: Priests have a "right" not to be sued over decades-old abuse. (1:20:15)
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Pastor Calls Autism Awareness Week "Demonic"
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Jessica and I spoke about several stories from the past week involving religion and politics.
— Arizona GOP lawmaker lashes out at "god-haters" who criticized abortion ban prayer. (4:21)
— Christian school's pastor cancels Autism Awareness Week, calling it "demonic." (19:40)
— New Testament scholar Richard Hays now says God's cool with gay people. (35:53)
— The Vatican, a threat to human dignity, calls gender-affirming surgery a threat to human dignity. (45:57)
— Wisconsin public school district seeks new leader with "conservative, christian values." (1:01:09)
— Christian woman admits she was fired from Starbucks for being an anti-LGBTQ bigot. (1:11:24)
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Richard Dawkins' Cultural Christianity Carelessness
Patreon supporters who give $5 a month will get an ad-free version of the show!
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Jessica and I spoke about several stories from the past week involving religion and politics.
— This pastor's wedding night "joke" epitomizes Christian sexism. (0:40)
— Richard Dawkins says Christianity is "fundamentally decent," but Islam "is not." (18:42)
SPONSOR: This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/atheist today to get 10% off your first month.
— Prominent Christians falsely claim Biden chose Easter to honor trans people. (34:13)
— Donald Trump is now selling a Bible that a Christian publisher walked away from in 2021. (41:13)
— New York prisoners, led by atheist, sue state in order to see solar eclipse. (48:28)
— Christians erect (another) $240,000 cross in Mississippi. (1:03:18)
— After ruining a school district, Christians in Colorado want to "take over" a city council. (1:09:40)
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Customer Reviews
Informative beyond local news
I love Hemant’s research on religious issues we are faced with today. Hemant goes into much greater details about issues one would not even know had religious scandals for the general media does not cover it. Hemant also talks about smaller local issues that don’t make national news. Jessica at times is good at pointing out point of views Hemant misses. I love listening every week.
Enlightening & A Must Listen
An always enlightening and wonderful listen. It’s the first thing I listen to every Friday morning before I head off to work at 3 am. Keep up the good work! I’ll keep sending you guys info on James River Church as I hear it. Lol.
My Go-To Sunday Show
The ‘00s-‘10s-era Reddit/Internet Atheism was very important and formative for me, and that’s when I started following Hemant’s work. Eventually I fell out of it (not atheism, but capital-A Internet Atheism) but I came back because of this podcast.
Hemant and Jessica have created something incredibly special and comforting. They are both excellent hosts. I’ve had a Sunday morning ritual of sorts listening to them for years now and they were even my first Patreon podcast subscription!
Sending my gratitude and thoughts to both of you, especially Jessica, whose trials and tribulations (a little JCS ref for you) I have empathized with greatly over the past year as I too have had a tough one.