Atheist will speak to students today

The friendly atheist is at IU.

Hermant Mehta, author of the book “I Sold My Soul on eBay: Viewing Faith Through an Atheist’s Eyes,” will be speaking to night.

Mehta will talk to the IU Secular Alliance at 7:30 p.m. tonight in Fine Arts 015 about his religious journey. The public is invited to attend.

Mehta will speak about his experiences and his opinions on image-building.

Bart Helms, public relations director for the Secular Alliance, said Mehta is one of the top names in atheist philosophy.  “I would encourage particularly non-theists or people of no particular denomination to come out and hear what we have to do to get better representation in the media,” Helms said.

Mehta became an atheist in high school and has been part of the movement since then. His book chronicles his experience accepting bids on eBay from people to attend their churches and re-evaluate his religious perspectives.

He contends atheists are friendly, open-minded people whose beliefs are not
accurately represented.

Helms said atheists are ranked just above scientologists in terms of whether people can vote for them or think they’re ethical.

“We have a lot of image-building to do, and Mehta has a lot of expertise on that, and insight,” he said.  

Mehta is also the current chair of the board of directors for the National Secular Alliance. He is earning his master’s in mathematics education at DePaul University and works as a high school mathematics teacher in a Chicago suburb. He chronicles his experience in a blog at www.friendlyatheist.com.

Members of the IU Secular Alliance said they knew they wanted to bring Mehta to campus since the end of last summer. They have been working around Mehta’s schedule as a student and teacher to find a time he was available.

“We knew we wanted him early on. It was just a question of making him work,” Helms said.