By Eric Jayne

Like it or not, Christian music is undoubtedly popular.  Among my daughter's peer group "Jesus Take the Wheel," by Carrie Underwood, is a very popular song that her friends sing when they get together.  During my own adolescence I was an unwilling participant in an evangelical youth group where many discussions took place regarding Christian artists like Amy Grant, Petra, and DC Talk.  Given the seemingly timeless popularity and ubiquity of pious music I felt the need to come up with a list of my favorite pro-atheist songs, many of which are delightfully sacrilegious.  Some of these songs promote rational freethought, some satirize religious beliefs, and others celebrate science.  In creating this list I factored musical composition and anti-ecclesiastical lyrics.  Although this list consists of only 30 songs I will pretend to be Casey Kasem and introduce them in the American Top 40 show fashion starting with number 30.

By Nick Wallin

During the first weekend in June, the new directors of the University of Minnesota student group CASH (Campus Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists) attended the annual conference of the American Humanist Association in Tempe, Arizona.

By James Zimmerman

If we take the word Cinema at its root (from the Greek kinesis, meaning "movement"), then pure cinema has been dying since the advent of synchronized sound.  Too many movies are simply footage of people talking, or of a camera sitting idly by recording whatever happens to be going on in front of it.  In its purest form, perhaps film continued to exist only in the creations of those (such as Chaplin and Hitchcock) who first mastered their trade and came to prominence during film's silent era.

But Pixar does an admirable job of bringing audiences a delicacy for the eyes.  In a style first explored in Toy Story, expanded upon in Monsters, Inc., and brought to perfection in WALL·E, the animation studio succeeds in telling a tale via visuals with its latest offering: Up. 

In the first fifteen minutes of Up, we are treated to a narrative - told almost entirely without words - of love found, promises made, and decades lived in the lives of Carl and Ellie. It's a poignant story, and the promises made and dreams lost in the picture-perfect montage bring equal parts laughter and tears. 

On Saturday, June 6 in Tuscon, AZ at the 68th Annual Conference of the American Humanist Association, Minnesota Atheists member, PZ Myers, author of the blog Pharyngula, and professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris, received the Humanist of the Year Award.  PZ Myers has been a vocal advocate for science education in schools and a staunch critic of "Intelligent Design" Creationism.  Dr. Myers should serve as motivation for anyone who wonders what they can do to make the world a better place.

By Bjorn Watland

Americans who do not believe in any gods (we would call them atheists, although they may not) are a large part of the population.  Some polls would say that there are more atheists in America than Mormons and Jews combined, however, we are either underrepresented, or our politicians are lying about their religious beliefs. If nearly one in five of us are atheists, as some polls suggest, why are we treated as a much smaller minority?  Much of that has to do with numbers and organization.