Beginning with some premises (#1-6) that few Religious Right anti-choice people would disagree with, we follow with a scientific fact (#7), leading to a couple surprising conclusions (#8-9).

1. God is all-powerful.
2. God is all-good.
3. Everything God does is good.
4. God wants humans to be good.
5. If humans imitate God, who is all-good, then humans will be good.
6. God created the human reproductive system.
7. At least 25% of fertilized human eggs are spontaneously aborted.
8. This makes God the world's biggest abortionist.
9. Humans should have more abortions.

(January 22, 2009 marks the 36th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade legalizing abortion.)

When University of Minnesota-Morris biology professor PZ Myers heard that the Cincinnati Zoo and the infamous Creation Museum were offering a joint ticket deal to lure in customers, he took his outrage to the blogosphere.

The pairing was a curious one to begin with. The Creation Museum, located in Kentucky and started by the apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis, claims the earth and all its life forms were created 6,000 years ago. (Our favorite exhibit is the stegosaurus and triceratops living large on Noah's Ark.)

"The Cincinnati Zoo is promoting an anti-science, anti-education con job run by ignorant creationists," Myers wrote on his blog, Pharyngula . "I believe the Cincinnati Zoo has betrayed its mission and its trust in a disgraceful way, by aligning themselves with a creationist institution that is a laughing stock to the rest of the world, and a mark of shame to the United States."

The news quickly spread and two days later, the deal was off. The flood of emails and phone calls were enough to scare the friendship to a halt.

Take that, Jesus!

by Eric Jayne

I love Christmas! That shouldn't come as a big surprise since it's arguably the most popular holiday in America. However, I might raise a few eyebrows if I added I am an atheist who loves Christmas. Many people might find a tremendous contradiction in a self-proclaimed atheist wishing friends, family, and neighbors a merry Christmas.

Like many freethinking secularists, I see absolutely no contradiction and I will continue to unabashedly practice Christmas traditions with my family while staying consistent with my freethinking philosophy. The way I see it, all of the fun parts of Christmas are secular: decorating trees, exchanging gifts, candy canes, eggnog, cookies, parties, lights, culinary overindulgence, Santa Claus, Rudolph, Frosty, and so on. And, in my opinion, the numerous festive secular and novelty Christmas songs are far better than their dreary religious counterparts.

by Bjorn Watland

By Victor Tanner and Crystal Dervetski

On November, 21^st, the Southern Minnesota Atheists Meet-Up Group hosted its first event at Blue Brick's pub in Mankato. Dubbed "Think and Drink", the meet up saw an estimated 38 atheists and free thinkers from Mankato and the surrounding area get together to share their thoughts and ideas, both weighty and light-hearted. While parts of the group discussed heavy duty philosophical concepts, others just decided to kick back and enjoy some fun conversation.

Future events will include an evening in January at the Andreas Observatory, at Minnesota State University, Mankato. The group is also excited to start small group discussions and will be looking to work with other local groups, such as Campus Atheists and Agnostics and liberal churches, for debate, socializing and volunteer work.

Anyone looking to attend atheist-themed events in Southern MN should visit our Meet Up site here.