''I Sold My Soul on eBay: Viewing Faith Through an Atheist's Eyes'' is a non-fiction book by Hemant Mehta, an atheist and

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

ger, and

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

er, who describes his visits to a variety of Christian churches. These visits initially occurred as a result of an

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

auction Mehta created where he offered to visit the worship services of the winning bidder's choosing. The media later branded this auction as Mehta "selling his soul."

Author

The author of the book, Hemant Mehta, is a writer, and atheist activist. He has worked with atheist groups such as the

Secular Student Alliance The Secular Student Alliance (SSA) is an American educational nonprofit organization whose purpose is to educate high school and college students about the value of scientific reason and the intellectual basis of secularism in its atheistic an ...

, the

Secular Coalition for America The Secular Coalition for America is an advocacy group located in Washington D.C. It describes itself as "representing the interests of atheists, humanists, freethinkers, agnostics, and other nontheistic Americans." The Secular Coalition has ch ...

, and Center for Inquiry. He is currently on the Board of Directors for the Foundation Beyond Belief. He writes at his own blog, ''Friendly Atheist'', and has published two other books, ''The Young Atheist's Survival Guide: Helping Secular Students Thrive'' and ''The Friendly Atheist: Thoughts on the Role of Religion in Politics and Media''.

eBay auction

In January 2006, Hemant Mehta posted an auction on

where he explained his background in atheism and offered to go to the worship services of the winning bidder's choosing. The auction ended on February 3, 2006 with a final bid of $504 from Jim Henderson, a former minister from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. Mehta later donated that money to the Secular Student Alliance, a non-profit organization for which he served as Chair of the Board of Directors. Henderson asked Mehta to visit a variety of churches and write about the experiences on Henderson's website, offthemap.com. Mehta eventually wrote about his visits at nine different churches as well as two additional pieces dealing with atheist conventions and Christian media.

Media coverage

Nearly a month after the auction, an article about Mehta's experiences appeared on the front page of ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', leading to a flurry of media coverage. He was featured in the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...

'', the '' Seattle Times'', and the ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

'', and on

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

. Mehta and Henderson were interviewed about the project on the

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program ''Big Story Primetime'' in March 2006.

Book

''I Sold My Soul on eBay'', published by

WaterBrook Press Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

, contains Mehta's observations and critiques of the churches he visited, along with background on how he became an atheist. The foreword was written by Rob Bell of Mars Hill Bible Church. The book also features his latest critiques, including descriptions of his visits to some of the best-known churches in the country including New Life Church (Pastor

Ted Haggard Ted Arthur Haggard (; born June 27, 1956) is an American evangelical pastor. Haggard is the founder and former pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado and is a founder of the Association of Life-Giving Churches. He served as pre ...

Mars Hill Bible Church Mars Hill Bible Church is an American non-denominational Christian megachurch located in Grandville, Michigan near Grand Rapids. The teaching pastor was Rob Bell until December, 2011 when Bell transitioned into another ministry and was succeede ...

(Pastor

Rob Bell Robert Holmes Bell Jr. (born August 23, 1970) is an American author, speaker and former pastor. Bell founded Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan, and pastored it until 2012. Under his leadership, Mars Hill was one of the fastest ...

), and

Lakewood Church Lakewood Church is a non-denominational evangelical Christian megachurch located in Houston, Texas. It is one of the largest congregations in the United States, averaging about 45,000 attendees per week. The 16,800-seat Lakewood Church building ...

(Pastor

Joel Osteen Joel Scott Osteen (born March 5, 1963) is an American lay preacher, televangelist, businessman and author based in Houston, Texas. Known for his weekly televised services and several best-selling books, Osteen is one of the more prominent figu ...

). It was released on April 17, 2007 and is available as a

paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, ...

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

, and

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

References

{{reflist, 2, refs= {{cite web , url=http://www.pointofinquiry.org/hemant_mehta_i_sold_my_soul_on_ebay/ , title=Hemant Mehta - I Sold My Soul on Ebay , publisher=Center for Inquiry , work=

Point of Inquiry ''Point of Inquiry'' is the radio show and flagship podcast of the Center for Inquiry (CFI), "a think tank promoting science, reason, and secular values in public policy and at the grass roots". Started in 2005, ''Point of Inquiry'' has consist ...

Podcast , date=4 May 2007 , accessdate=23 February 2014 , first=D. J., last=Grothe , authorlink=D.J. Grothe {{cite web , url=http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/author-spotlight.php?authorid=73956 , title=Author Spotlight: Hemant Mehta , publisher=WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group , accessdate=23 February 2014 {{Dead link, date=September 2018 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes {{cite web , url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tIJZGkf1vI , archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/5tIJZGkf1vI , archive-date=2021-12-13 , url-status=live, title=eBay Atheist on Fox , publisher=Fox News , date=March 2006 , accessdate=23 February 2014{{cbignore {{cite web , url=http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/about-the-contributors/ , title=Contributors , publisher=Patheos , work=Friendly Atheist Blog , accessdate=23 February 2014 {{cite web , url=http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/2007/09/I-Sold-My-Soul-On-Ebay-Interview-With-Atheist-Hemant-Mehta.aspx?p=1 , title='I Sold My Soul on eBay': Interview with Atheist Hemant Mehta , publisher=Beliefnet, Inc. , work=Beliefnet , accessdate=23 February 2014 {{cite book , title=I Sold My Soul on eBay: Viewing Faith through an Atheist's Eyes , isbn=1400073472 {{cite web , url=http://www.offthemap.com/idealab/articles/wsj_ebay_atheist.html , title=On eBay, an Atheist Puts His Own Soul On the Auction Block , publisher=Dow Jones & Company , work=The Wall Street Journal (reprinted at offthemap.com) , date=9 March 2006 , accessdate=23 February 2014 , author=Sataline, Suzanne , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120722201656/http://www.offthemap.com/idealab/articles/wsj_ebay_atheist.html , archivedate=22 July 2012 {{cite web , url=http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5660982226 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615151504/http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5660982226 , url-status=dead , archive-date=15 June 2006 , title=Send an Atheist to his local Church! , accessdate=23 February 2014

External links

Friendly Atheist
Hemant's blog 2007 non-fiction books Books about atheism