By James Zimmerman

 

The Atheist Camel Rants Again
By Bart Centre
self-published
312 pages, © 2011

In his new book The Atheist Camel Rants Again, Bart Centre reprises his role as Dromedary Hump, pontificating in a humorous, pseudo-grumpy, and often blunt manner on a spectrum of theological matters that capture his attention. Comprised of several two- and three-page chapters adopted from his blog, atheistcamel.blogspot.com, the book is very similar in style and content to Centre’s 2009 work, The Atheist Camel Chronicles.

 

By Eric Jayne

 

The clever, satirical, and silly Jon Stewart has made a successful career out of lambasting the hyperbolic, hyper-partisan media.  While he has poked fun at MSNBC and CNN, it’s Fox News that receives most of his unrelenting, albeit justified, acerbic wit.  Who else but ATHEISTS could possibly bring these two diametrically opposed parties together?

 

By James Zimemrman

The Unbelievers, by S.T. Joshi ©2011,  Prometheus Books, 272 pages.

S. T. Joshi’s latest book sketches the lives and teachings of the main players in the non-belief arena from the time of Darwin until today. In some ways, The Unbelievers: The Evolution of Modern Atheism could be read as a sequel to Kerry Walters’ book Revolutionary Deists - Prometheus Book’s release from earlier this year - that detailed the deism of several founding fathers.

 

By Steve Petersen

 

We had a two-part program for June. In Part One, local librarian Mindy Rhiger discussed her ten favorite books for young children on the topics of religion, faith, belief, and death. She noted that the books were great for introducing children to these difficult topics without indoctrinating them. Some of the books explained, in simple terms, that people around the world have a variety of beliefs. Others are designed to help secular families talk about death and loss without involving religious teachings such as resurrection. This included The Tenth Good Thing About Barney, by Judith Viorst, which offers children an open, honest look at death and Goodbye, Rune, by Marit Kaldhol, a book that offers a humanist perspective on the loss of a friend.

 

MINNEAPOLIS—July 13, 2011

 

On June 1, 2011, The Minnesota Atheists filed an amicus curiae brief in the Minnesota Appellate Court on behalf of three same-sex Minnesota couples who are suing the government for the right to get legally married in Minnesota.  At least two of these six individuals are atheists. The Appellate Court accepted the brief on June 20, 2011.