Can you stand all the updates?

In the ongoing "nifty updates to the site" category, we've added a calendar to the site! Now you can go straight to any day's updates with a single click. This will be incredibly useful once we have some actual traffic!

A Doomsday Cult, The Mouthy General and The BBC

How'd you like to be on trial for 7 1/2 years? No? Well in Japan, this guy is finishing up a trail of that length and is getting ready to await a verdict. Shoko Asahara, the head-honcho of a doomsday-cult, and the alleged mastermind of the 1995 tokyo subway nerve gas attack will soon be handed his wanling papers. If convitcted, he could hang. Which, as a doomsday cultist, should probably make him very happy. My question is, why not just kill yourself and avoid all the legal fees involved with gassing a bunch of commuters?

If you've been watching, you wold know that a few days ago we mentioned a general who was waging his own little holy war on the non-americo-christian world. Well there is some more news about him it seems, which delves even deeper into his history of prostheletization (I think I just made that work up.) It seems he's been shouting from the mountaintops for quite some time now. Kinda makes you warm all over doesn't it?

And finally, not so much news and a place to find news. Today we'll be adding the BBC's Religion and Ethics Atheism Homepage (say that five times fast) to our links section. Not really sure how this slid under my radar for so long as I check the BBC regularly for articles to discuss here. Anyhow, check it out and see what's going on in the UK when it comes to the lack of religion.

Lightning and a Cross

Behold the wrath of the almighty! It seems that Jim Caviezel is playing jesus in the upcoming Mel Gibson movie "The Passion of Christ." It also seems that this movie might be somewhat controverisal. It further seems that God Himself is displeased with the movie and has stepped back into the old testament days of smiting from above. You see Jim has been struck by lightening, not once, but twice through the course of making this film. Time to pray? Time to consider a different Profession? Or simply time to stop carrying an umbrella in the middle of a thunderstorm? I'm gonna go with the latter.

In other news from the Italian boot, a court in Italy has decided that a crucifix has to be removed from a school (NYTimes online, free registration required) after some muslim parents have complained. They don't want their children to have to be inundated with catholicism at school. Seems reasonable right? Of course this has caused some Italiam catholics to start to protest. I guess this just shows us again that religious folks really don't want to get along with each other, they just want to continue making like difficult for everyone who is not them.

Talk to me People!!

Those of you who are frequent visitors (all 2 of you) will notice a new link across the top of the page. "Submit" has finally been added which will allow you to send in any ideas you might have for the site, straight to me. Send whatever you like, news articles you've come across, a short story you've written, an opinion piece you'd like to see published on Modern Atheist, anything you'd like. Be heard!

Holy War And The Right to Death

Been watching the news coverage of Iraq? If not, you might have missed this little nugget which has our fearless leader (that's the big "W" for those of you confused by the implication that our leader is fearless) letting a general off the hook. "What hook," you ask? Well it seems that this general believes America is a christian nation and that we are on some sort of crusade or holy war. Wonder what could have given him that idea?

And the other white Bush is in the news this week as the family of a comatose woman fight for her right do die with dignity. Is it right to let her die? Should we keep her around on life-support? Which ever side of this fight you're on, its in the news and getting some attention. And Jeb Bush is right at the center of it. This outa be VERY interesting.

"People Day"

I friend of mine recently wrote a short story that I thought was rather clever. It happened to have god cast as one of the main characters. So in a stroke of brilliance, I convinced him to allow me to share it with you, the world. If you like the story, feel free to let the author know at jroberts@earthlink.net. And without furthur ado, I give you "People Day" by: Jon Roberts. More...

Support

Well folks, you knew it would happen eventually. The "PayPal" button has shown up on the site shamefully begging for donations. Do I really expect anyone to donate? Probably not. It is mostly there to begin the process of getting PayPal ready to go in preparation for the eventual...
Modern Atheist Store!!
That's right, hopefully by the end of the month we will have bumper stickers for sale and eventually t-shirts and maybe other miscellaneous goodies as well. If there is anything in particular you'd like to see the Modern Atheist logo on, drop me a line and let me know.

New Search Feature

Now that we've been up and running for a while, we actually have some content in the archives. We've therefore added a search feature which can be located to the right, under the subject headings and also directly from the archives page.

A Visit With Michael Moore

	Today we're gonna take a slight detour from discussing strictly those things that revolve around the non-belief in god, and instead discuss a book signing I attended today.
For those who don't know, Michael Moore's new book, Dude, Where's My Country? came out this week. Although I haven't read the whole thing yet, what I have read seems promising. Lots of ripping on the man Michael Moore (MM) calls the "commander-in-thief" or "thief-in-chief". And it was about this particular individual that I spoke with MM about. You see, on Wednesday when I went to buy Dude, Where's My Country?, sitting by the checkout counter was the second book whose cover you see above. Where's Saddam? is a satirical children's pop-up book which has our lovely commander-in-thief searching high and low for the evilest of evildoers. Knowing MM's feelings about Mr. Bush, I did what anyone would do: I took the book with me to the signing. This is the result:
(click image to enlarge)
If you can't make out what he wote, it reads thus: "After I git saddam, I'm gittin' Lisa and Jeremy (my wife and I)! -Michael Moore". I was truly touched as any of you would've been I'm sure. Upon showing MM this book, he was elated and asked his "handlers" from Harry Schwartz books if he could get a copy. The guy actually jumped on a radio secret service style and ordered the book be brought to MM! So you heard it here first, if you see Michael Moore on the news, showing off his Bush pop-up book, you'll know the real story: Your favorite godless heathen, Lateralis (AKA, Jeremy) showed it to him. Of course, he signed Dude, Where's My Country? as well, but that one isn't nearly as good a story. And you should read the book. It's actually pretty good!

God, Protect Me From Your Followers...

Thinking of showing up for jury duty? Well good news! If you're in Colorado you don't have to worry about things like civic responsibility or sound judgment. Why? Because as a juror, you answer only to god. You see, according to the constitution, our rights are granted by god, not by man. So we can simply pray about a case and all will be well! Please save us from these people!

Next we have a former brigadier general who is running for president of Guatemala. Thankfully, he to has no intention of using logic or intelligence to help rule his country but will simply rely on god to sort everything out. Ok, seriously: Where do these people come from? Did I fall asleep and wake up in the dark ages? It's gonna be 2004 for cryin' out loud! Frankly, I think we should just start sacrificing virgins to the volcano god. That's sure to make the almighty look favorably on us!

And finally today, remember Matthew Shephard? For those who don't he was the gay man who was savagely beaten and murdered a few years back, mostly for being gay. Well his name is back in the news again as there are two competing factions who would like to put up memorials. But as we ALL should know by now, "God Hates Fags", and therefore only one memorial is appropriate. You see these folks want a memorial that reads

"Matthew Shepard entered Hell October 12, 1998, at age 21 in defiance of God's solemn warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22."

Touching isn't it? I say again: PROTECT US FROM THESE PEOPLE!!!

More Commandments and Randy Newman

Holding signs like "Hand written by the one living God" and "Thou Shall Not Put God's Laws In A Closet", a bunch of Christians in Georgia threw together a little rally to support the display of the 10 commandments in our nations courthouses. GIVE IT UP GUYS!!! Seriously. We intelligent Americans are done with you guys trying to hijack our national institutions and turn them into Christian FactoriesÙ. Enough already.

And guess who's in our corner? Well, maybe not in our corner, but at the very least not in THEIR corner. I'll wait...

Go on, guess...

It's in the title....

Ok, it's Randy Newman! Take a look. It seems his dad was a pretty outspoken atheist and he picked up some of it. You just never now who's gonna be on your side these days, do you?