By Kirumira Mpagi Michael

Africa is perhaps the most miserable place the world has ever known.  This fact is all but ignored by the media in western Countries. Most of the governments here, although calling themselves promoters of democracies, are ruthless dictatorships, ruled by greed and callous disregard for human life and dignity. They are supported by religious institutions that desire a share in the power, and they are supported by the "Western World" because they can still exploit them for profit. That's Africa, for you friends in Minnesota.

By Bjorn Watland

On Friday, August 7, 300 atheists descended onto the Creation Museum in Petersberg, Kentucky.  The Creation Museum, an Answers in Genesis project, is designed as a more traditional science museum than some carnival ride (as other "creation museums" have been).  It presents evidence to support their pre-drawn conclusion that all that has ever happened in the past is contained in the Christian Bible.  Since the Christian Bible contains lineages and ages of people, they conclude that that scientists who have used material evidence to come to the conclusion that the Earth is about 4.5 billion years old must be mistaken about atheism.

By George Kane

With his health insurance reform initiative bogging down in the face of declining public support, President Obama is calling on religious leaders to turn it into a moral crusade. On one day in August he held two teleconferences to this end. In the morning he asked about 1,000 rabbis to preach his political agenda in their sermons on Rosh Hashanah, while that afternoon he spoke to a mostly Christian audience of about 140,000 religious leaders in a conference call and webcast.

By Crystal Dervetski

Recently, Minnesota Atheists sent out a survey to gauge interests and opinions of our membership. The response was absolutely overwhelming, mostly in a good way. There appear to be many questions regarding what Minnesota Atheists as an organization actually does, what we offer, and who we are as a group of people. I had already started answering some questions in previous articles. In one, I had discussed why we ask new members how they found out about Minnesota Atheists, and why they chose to become members, as there seemed to be some confusion in this area as well. Now that we have the survey data fairly complete, I'm going to start tackling some of the bigger issues that were brought up in the free form responses.

By Vic Tanner

On July 9, the Republic of Ireland passed a law against material that is "abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion". Why would the government of an enlightened secular country choose to enact a blasphemy law at this point in history? Though many countries, some of which  may surprise you, still have blasphemy laws on the books, these laws are often vague to the point of meaninglessness and are seldom enforced. For instance, the Greek Penal Code defines a  blasphemer as "one who publicly and maliciously and by any means blasphemes God" yet makes no attempt to clarify who "God" is or what these malicious acts may consist of. Whether these laws were intended to placate religious individuals or to protect religious institutions, they accomplish neither.