Matthew Chapman

He has written and directed six films, written numerous screenplays, had articles published in Harper's magazine and National Geographic among others, currently blogs on Huffington Post, and is the author of two books, "Trials of the Monkey – An Accidental Memoir" and "40 Days and 40 Nights – Darwin, Intelligent Design, God, OxyContin, and Other Oddities on Trial in Pennsylvania".

His latest film, The Ledge, which he wrote and directed, stars Charlie Hunnam, Liv Tyler, Terrence Howard, and Patrick Wilson. It was shot in Louisiana and competed in the main (U.S. Dramatic) competition at Sundance 2011. Bought by IFC, it had its theatrical release in the U.S. in early summer and has now played in over 50 territories worldwide. The film deals with an intellectual, personal, and ultimately fatal feud between an atheist and an evangelical Christian. An atheist on a ledge is forced to decide whether to die or to see someone he loves killed. According to Chapman, it is "the first pro-atheist feature film ever to be released in America". His goal was to "put out a piece of work that makes the basic intellectual arguments for atheism, but also makes a powerful emotional argument against cruelty of a religious kind" and the "ways people suffer as a result".

Chapman founded ScienceDebate.org in 2007. His co-founders were fellow screenwriter Shawn Lawrence Otto, CEO of the organization, science writer Chris Mooney, marine biologist and science blogger Sheril Kirshenbaum, noted physicist Lawrence Krauss, and philosopher Austin Dacey. The organization was formed to pressure the presidential candidates to hold a debate on science and technology issues. Signatories include many Nobel laureates, hundreds of universities, university presidents, dozens of science publications, business leaders and innovators, almost every major science organization in America, Elon Musk (Tesla), former members of Obama's science cabinet, and many people in the arts, including Johnny Depp, Mark Ruffalo, David Schwimmer, and actor/environmentalist, Peter Coyote. Although the candidates have not yet agreed to a science debate, from 2008 on all final candidates have answered 14 to 20 science questions publicly asked by ScienceDebate.org. This includes Barack Obama (twice), John McCain, Mitt Romney, Donald J. Trump, Hillary Clinton, Jill Stein, and Gary Johnson. When published online and in news media their answers reach many hundred of millions of people. The organization continues to advocate at all times for more discussion of science in public life. Chapman remains its President. According to Chapman, it is "bizarre to me that you would have a debate on faith but not have a debate on science".