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.

By Eric Jayne

Back in April, on Good Friday, a tornado ripped through St. Louis, Missouri. There was some property damage but not one single person was killed or badly injured. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon credited divine intervention for this fortunate circumstance. Sadly, Nixon’s omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent god failed to intervene five days later when tornados shredded through Alabama killing over 200 people. God also didn’t bother offering life-saving miracles in Japan the month before when over 20,000 people succumbed to a massively fatal tsunami. Nixon understandably didn’t bother invoking divine intervention when a tornado killed over 150 Missourians in Joplin one month after the St. Louis tornado. Victims included children like 10-year-old Shante Caton and her 6-year-old brother Trentan. Public mourning and national relief aid seemed to be the appropriate response, but Gov. Rick Perry of Texas offered a different kind of response. Perry invited other state governors, including Nixon, and the rest of the nation to Houston’s Reliant Stadium next month to pray and “call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles.”