By Nathan Curland
When I was first offered a copy of Atheist Voices of Minnesota to review I was less than intrigued. After all, I knew plenty of atheists and had heard many stories of miserable childhoods and escape from religion, so reading 36 variations on this theme seemed a bit less than stimulating.
Boy was I wrong.
From the moment I started reading, I was totally absorbed by the 36 individual narratives of the backgrounds and journeys of these people, some that I knew, many that I have heard of, and others that are (regrettably) still strangers. Their stories are unique and compelling. Many, you will find, hit close to your ‘home’. Did you ever have to fib to be able to do something at your church/synagogue? Or realize that your parents were just going through the motions and you were following in their footsteps? Or maybe just going to a university opened your eyes? Maybe you are gay and religion was not helping you. It’s all here.
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Read more: Book Review: Atheist Voices of Minnesota
By Eric Jayne
Thank you for visiting our website and taking an interest in us. If you’re reading this you likely know about our upcoming sponsored St. Paul Saints baseball game. As a way to celebrate our identity and extend our fun to others, the St. Paul Saints agreed to an atheist sponsored game in which the team name will be changed for one night. While the reaction from the freethinking community has been very positive, it’s been a mix of positive and negative from everyone else. Most of the negative feedback has come from misconceptions (often perpetrated by bloggers and some media outlets) about our purpose for holding the “Night of Unbelievable Fun”. Because of that I thought that I would address some of the most common accusations permeating in the media and blogosphere:
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Read more: Atheists Just Want to Have Fun
By George Kane
Everyone is looking forward to the Regional Conference that we are co-sponsoring with American Atheists in St. Paul on August 11. It prompted one of our members to write to our board on a very serious matter, however. She noted that it is becoming standard for atheist and skeptic organizations to adopt anti-harassment policies for their conventions.
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Read more: Board Adopts a New Anti-Harassment Policy
Do you enjoy listening to our “Atheists Talk” radio show, either live on air on AM 950 KTNF radio, or streaming live on-line, or as a podcast later? What many people don’t realize is that we have to pay for our time slot – over $10,000 a year. We think it’s worth it because we get a lot of positive feedback from people we meet at the festivals at which we have booths.
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Read more: Radio Fund Needs Your Help!
By Eric Jayne
Many will be coming to the Twin Cities in a few weeks to play ball with the atheists!
It appears that there will be at least 70 atheists at Midway Stadium on August 10th rooting on the Mr. Paul Aints—which is what the team will be renamed that night—and cheering for American Atheists President Dave Silverman as he delivers the first ceremonial pitch of the game.
The name change is a light-hearted way to captivate and represent our community.
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Read more: Play Ball and Enjoy 20 Hits with the Atheists!
