Shy youth from Arkansas don’t generally jumpstart their professional careers by attacking religion in the Bible Belt. But that’s just what JT Eberhard did, and he’s damn happy he did so. After a proselytizing high school teacher convinced him to commit himself to evangelical Christianity, in his mid-teens, JT finally read the Bible. He was an atheist by the time he was finished. Shortly thereafter, he read Sam Harris’s The End of Faith, which convinced him of the dangers of religion and that activism against its influence was necessary to create the kind of world in which he wants to live.
What began as joke -- drawing Flying Spaghetti Monster emblems on the sidewalks of Missouri State University -- has progressed into a purpose-driven life. He has helped organize multiple Skepticons, the largest annual secular convention in the Midwest, is a frequent religious debater, and currently works at the Secular Student Alliance as America’s only organizer of secular high school groups.