Talk:Hemant Mehta

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A fact from Hemant Mehta appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 22 March 2014 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Hemant Mehta, the "Friendly Atheist" who sold his soul on eBay, raised money to clean up a vandalized church?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2014/March. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Hemant Mehta.

Wikipedia

Promoting a conciliatory attitude between theists and atheists[edit]

This individual does NOT "promote a conciliatory attitude between theists and atheists" so please don't reinsert that text. He is quite hostile to theists. His blog contains such conciliatory attitudes as "Honk If Your Religious Beliefs Make You An Asshole", "God Doesn’t Kill People. People Who Believe in God Kill People", and "WWJD = We Won. Jesus Died". As well as Altar Boy defense tips where sacred religious items are used to injure pedophile priests.

Also, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and does not exist for the purpose of promoting personal blogs on hate sites. —Preceding unsigned comment added by BrianWD (talk • contribs) 05:33, 24 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Notability concerns...[edit]

This person's notability seems limited to a single event, which is already covered by a separate article. Is there anything else of note to write here?

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

I haven't found anything myself. Merzul (talk) 13:48, 4 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It appears he and his friends avidly edit this page. It definitely looks like someone's disingenuous usage of Wikipedia for self promotion. If it wasn't a person I would suspect it is a PR managed corporate account. I strongly support any removal of this page. <!//– ☠ ʇdɯ0ɹd ɥsɐq ☠ // user // talk // twitter //–> 09:25, 6 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Adding a recording[edit]

File:Hemant Mehta Voice.ogg

Hemant Mehta recording for the voice intro project.

Adding Hemant Mehta voice intro project recording. Kyle^(talk) 03:54, 11 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

First Section, Suggested Refs[edit]

The first reference friendlyatheist.com might be better as

"About Hemant Mehta", Friendly Atheist Blog, Patheos

note, add date for accessdate tag, place ref tags before and after to put into article.

Another source I suggest is

"Hemant Mehta" (Bio), Speakers list, Secular Student Alliance

Articles by Hemant Mehta in Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/hemant-mehta/2011/03/16/ABkJC3f_page.html this is best support for notability. He is a member of the Washington Post panel "On Faith" http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/Hemant_Mehta/

You Tube video of speech at Reason Rally http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDe6lOL0JJU

Interview about Sold My Soul on EBay book at beliefnet http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/2007/09/I-Sold-My-Soul-On-Ebay-Interview-With-Atheist-Hemant-Mehta.aspx

Profile at diversity council http://diversity.dfwcor.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15:hemant-mehta&catid=1:profiles&Itemid=12

He has written articles that appeared on the Richard Dawkins Foundation site.

Article on his appearance at Carnegie Mellon http://www.secularstudents.org/node/2465

Catholic News Agency article quoting Hemant http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/cw/post.php?id=703

Just wanted to help out providing some info. If you decide to use any of these sources I can do the citations for them if you like.MrBill3 (talk) 23:01, 2 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Second Section, Some More Suggested Refs[edit]

One of the debaters on the question, "Should atheists pray?" on Room for Debate a series in The New York Times.

Mehta, Hemant (27 June 2013). "A useless habit, with a dark side". New York Times. Room for Debate.

Articles in The Christian Post and San Antonio Express News about Mehta's appearance at a church.

Barnhart, Melissa (15 July 2013). "Hemant Mehta the 'Friendly Atheist' shares his view of Christians with Oak Hills Church congregation". Christian Post.

Tedesco, John (7 July 2013). "'Friendly atheist' speaks to thousands at Oak Hills". mySA website. San Antonio Express-News.

Appearances (past and upcoming, from major national to local monthly):

Reason Rally:

"Official Schedule". Reason Rally website. Reason Rally Coalition.

American Atheists 2013 National Convention in Austin, TX:

"Speakers: 2013 National Convention". American Atheists.

Skepticon:

"Hemant Mehta". Skepticon 6 website. Speakers. Springfield, MO: Skepticon.

KFC:

mhensley (26 May 2013). "Annie Laurie Gaylor and Hemant Mehta coming to KFC2013!". Kentucky Freethought Convention blog. Kentucky Freethought Convention.

Atheists United:

"General Meeting: Hemant Mehta "Friendly Atheist"". Los Angeles, CA: Atheists United.

Secular Alliance at Indiana University:

"Speaker: Hemant Mehta on "Improving the Atheist Image"". Bloomington, IN: Secular Alliance at Indiana University.

Cal Poly Alliance of Happy Atheists:

"The Rise of Young Atheists – Hemant Mehta – Saturday". San Luis Obispo, CA: Cal Poly (California Polytechnic State University) Alliance of Happy Atheists. 17 April 2012.

Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics (AHA!) @ Stanford

"April 2nd: Hemant Mehta and Rev. Geoff Browning". Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics (AHA!) @ Stanford. 17 March 2009.

Skeptech:

"Past Speakers: Skeptech1". Campus Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists student group at the University of Minnesota (CASH), and the Secular Student Alliance at St. Cloud State University.

Freethought Festival in WI:

"Speakers". Freethought Festival website. Atheists, Humanists, & Agnostics @ UW-Madison.

Midwest Humanist and Freethought Conference:

"Midwest Humanist and Freethought Conference, 3rd Annual". Omaha Atheists. 6 July 2011.

FreeOK:

"Countdown to FreeOK" (PDF). The Voice of Reason. Vol. 1, no. 3. Atheist Community of Tulsa. 2012. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

Six O'Clock Series, Indiana University of PA:

"A Young Atheist's Survival Guide". Six O'Clock Series. Center for Student Life, Indiana University of Pennsylvania. 2013.

Triangle Freethought Society:

"Hemant Mehta - Monthly Program Meeting". Raliegh, NC: Triangle Freethought Society. 2013.

Link to articles by Mehta in The Washington Post.

"Hemant Mehta (articles by Mehta in The Washington Post)". Washington Post.

Profile on Freedom From Religion Foundation website.

Eucanalano, Sarah. "Hemant Mehta". Freethought of the Day for 25 February. Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Interview on Meet the Skeptics podcast:

Christopher Brown (8 March 2012). "Meet the Skeptics" (Podcast). Liberated Syndication. {{cite podcast}}: Unknown parameter |episode= ignored (help)

Just posting some possible additional sources. - - MrBill3 (talk) 07:13, 8 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Changes[edit]

I've noticed a few items I want to change before this gets released:

I worked on the page for I Sold My Soul on eBay, and we couldn't find a source for the part about an editor from WaterBrook asking him to write the book. I think it's best we take that out.
The statement "His blog The Friendly Atheist attracts readers from both sides of the fence with regard to religious belief" from the lede is not mentioned anywhere in the body, and it is not cited. Also, there are many sides of the religion fence. A better statement would be "His blog attracts atheists and believers alike," but it would need a citation. For now I think it's best just to remove that from the lede and just mention the blog.
I want to add some relevant facts from the eBay page as well.
There are some minor issues with formatting, like links, italics, and such. I'll clean those up.

Mycota (talk) 05:49, 27 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Request for Comments[edit]

There is an RfC on the question of using "Religion: None" vs. "Religion: None (atheist)" in the infobox on this and other similar pages.

The RfC is at Template talk:Infobox person#RfC: Religion infobox entries for individuals that have no religion.

Please help us determine consensus on this issue. --Guy Macon (talk) 18:09, 21 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Online harassment campaigns.[edit]

To many users of the internet this person is only known for taking it upon himself to declare people as 'racists' and demand public apologies for comments they have made. If they do not apologize he posts 'hit pieces' about them, and then goes on to contact all their business associates in an attempt to damage their income. One notable example of this is Cult of Dusty, a famous YouTube atheist. Hemant Mehta decided an off color joke was evidence of systemic racism and declared Dusty to be 'racist' (ignoring the fact he was born and raised in a predominantly black neighborhood with diverse influences and no real concept of race - perhaps stereotyping Dusty because of his southern accent) and began to harass his business associates in an attempt to get them to 'distance themselves' from him and cut off 'all business relations.' Realistically this is all this chap is known for besides one arguably notable self publishing effort and another self aggrandizement in the past. It seems this entire article reads like a PR spin to further aggrandize himself, with people directly associated with his social circle adding material to this article and guarding it. This isn't what Wikipedia is for. We cannot address one minor thing few consider notable yet ignore the one thing he is notable for. <!//– ☠ ʇdɯ0ɹd ɥsɐq ☠ // user // talk // twitter //–> 09:30, 6 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Please provide citations. WikipediaUserCalledChris (talk) 16:26, 22 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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Podcast[edit]

I just added the podcast co-hosted by Mehta to this article. RobP (talk) 15:38, 1 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]