1. A man in Indonesia faces up to five years in prison for writing “God does not exist” on Facebook. [Article][Petition]
2. A man in London has been convicted for saying “cunt” on Twitter. [Link 1] [Link 2]
3. An art student in Canada took the following photograph for her coursework:
   

   Source: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/04/13/this-picture-of-a-muslim-woman-holding-a-bra-is-not-offensive/

An international adviser working for the university tore down the image, damaging the student’s work in the process. Thompson Rivers University said the woman who tore down the poster “was acting on behalf of other Muslim students, and not in her official capacity.” [Link]

Kinda wish I was at #AtheistCon right now so I could have a reasoned, logical debate with these guys. They look like they’d be up for it. (You get a cookie if you can find a single woman in that crowd, by the way.)

Source: https://twitter.com/#!/mikestuchbery/status/191348220650192896/photo/1

Sounds like a great event. Atheists are singing “Always look on the bright side of life” and offering hugs to the irate protesters.

Favourite tweets from the event so far:

@Simbera: Apostrophe crimes are worse than apostasy crimes

@CoranStow: When they call out “allahu akbar”, respond with “it’s a trap!”

The first thing I saw when I checked the news today was this parody of the Stonewall “Some people are gay, get over it” bus ad campaign. While I had mixed feelings about the original campaign [Patrick Neylan gives  a good critique of Stonewall's marketing campaign here] I can safely say I prefer it to this poster, which was scheduled to go up on buses around London next week. The posters are funded by two conservative Christian groups that both support the idea of a “cure” for homosexuality.

This caused me to sigh a little, but I’m not hugely concerned about this: I’m a free speech advocate, and think these banners are little more than shouting matches between two sides. They’re annoying, but not hatred-inducing. And by this evening the international outcry surrounding this poster prompted London mayor Boris Johnson to announce he’s going to stop it going up. No doubt this will lead those who believe in its cause to feel suppressed and so strengthen their belief — perhaps creating a few homophobes in the process — but at least it’ll give the rest of us less of a headache.

But the next item I read raised my blood temperature a little bit closer to boiling…

There’s a statue of Jesus in Mumbai which has received a lot of attention lately because water has begun to drip from Jesus’ feet. This was quickly dubbed a miracle, and crowds have gathered to praise this dripping Jesus and collect vials of the holy water.

As miracles are something of a rarity in reality, one chap decided to study this statue in greater detail to see what he could learn from this fascinating artifact. He soon found that the cause of the water wasn’t divine intervention. It was a broken drain. He pointed this out to a few people and (here’s where the rage kicks in) is now facing charges of blasphemy due to numerous police cases filed against him for his sacrilegious comments. Don’t even get me started on the idea of blasphemy being a crime in the 21st Century.

Meanwhile in the civilised, secular Western world: death threats to teenagers! Yay!

Jessica Ahlquist, the American high schooler who politely pointed out during a school meeting that the prominent Christian prayer banner hanging in their gymnasium seemed in violation of church/state separation laws, received this charming letter from a fan yesterday:

Source: http://www.atheistunderworld.com/2012/04/11/jessica-ahlquist-receives-death-threats/

That’s nice, isn’t it?

I had hoped that would be enough religion-induced rage for one day, but hopping on Twitter revealed something rather worrying: a number of prominent atheists had their accounts suspended without warning or explanation. Details are sketchy as to why, but it seems that a number of users had reported the accounts as spam and Twitter suspended them without really checking if the reports were accurate.

Follow #AntiAtheistCampaign to be kept up-to-date on this as it develops.

UPDATE: Thanks to Tim Farley (you may remember his blog from the Mabus fiasco) for confirming that the #AntiAtheistCampaign was, as I had hoped, not a campaign at all, but rather an unfortunate result of Twitter’s enhanced new anti-spam measures clashing with the popular Twitter sport of “bigot baiting“. The hashtag is still active, and users like Godless Spellchecker are still suspended at the time of writing.

And now I’ll leave you with a beautiful collage (click to enlarge):

Collage source: http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/oktlw/when_people_ask_why_i_have_a_problem_with/

I was dead chuffed when Ariane Sherine, founder of the original atheist bus campaign and editor of The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas, tweeted about it.

Breaking News: Christians Offended

While it may seem hard to believe, reports have confirmed that a group of Christians in Iowa have recently been offended.  While initially dismissed as a hoax (due to the almost unheard of notion of a religious group taking offense at something) reporters at the scene found overwhelming evidence to suggest that a number of Christians – including some who wield considerable political power – had been offended.

The culprit responsible for this devastating event was identified as a bus which, in a deliberate attempt to cause fear and suffering amongst the citizens of Iowa, rudely dared to acknowledge the existence of atheists.

The banners, sponsored by Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers, went up on buses in the Des Moines area earlier this month but were quickly removed after the transit company was allegedly flooded with complaints.  Des Moines Area Regional Transit (DART) issued a statement to the DesMoinesRegister, explaining that the agency’s board “had not approved the signs” and “that they were put up by mistake.”

Of course, taking even a brief glimpse at this atheistic advert explains why the otherwise calm and collected Christians felt compelled to break out of character and feel offended: they were clearly provoked.

Governor Chet Culver said of the matter:

“I was disturbed, personally, by the advertisement and I can understand why other Iowans were also disturbed by the message that it sent.”

While offending Christians is not yet considered a federal offense in the state of Iowa, it is understandably taboo as the resulting onslaught of angry letter writing and overblown media attention can cause numerous health problems to the general public, most notably earache.

Buses in Greek Orthodox Mythology

While this particular bus was valiantly defeated, it is unlikely to be the last we hear of these dangerous double-decker tanks of godlessness.  For centuries, buses have been deployed by Satan in an act to undermine the Christian faith, with each model carrying its own brand of provocative insults and disturbing philosophies.  Early incarnations have included outrageously dogmatic slogans, such as “There’s probably no God” – a chilling glimpse into a Godless world where people are encouraged to “stop worrying and enjoy their lives.”  We urge all readers of this article to remain indoors, plug their ears, close their eyes and pray for those who have not been blessed with the great perspective on life God has given you.

Basically: they’re evil fucks and they want to eat your internets. Don’t let them.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

In their native tongue, it seems the Welsh have no words for anything less than 10,000 years old.  Listen closely and you’ll distinctly hear, “Mae hi’n flich llach iawn in-ter-net ac hoffi hydd achy recording stiwdio…”.  In fact, some would go as far as to say the Welsh don’t actually have a language: it’s just English with an abundance of y’s, w’s and salivating noises thrown in to disguise it (I firmly believe the leading cause of Welsh weather to be the amount of saliva in the atmosphere).

But the Welsh language I can handle (not understand; just handle) – my problem lies with something far worse: the Welsh accent.  The Welsh accent can be divided into 3 major segments: “Yur”, “butt” and “izzeh” – but venture around the country and you’ll encounter a wide array of regional greetings, ranging from the formal – “a’iite spaaa” – to the more casual “owz bruv – gor’ any weed?”

“Izzeh” tends to follow factual statements, such as:

“The Eiffel Tower is in Paris.”

“Izzeh?”

“Yes… it is.”

“Ah, izzeh?”

I can only assume this is derived from the English terms “is it?” and “it is” – the meaning of the latter dominating the definition of the former: a prime example of an English phrase being reversed to make it seem more Welsh, and transforming it into an unnecessarily elongated version of “OK” rather than an actual question.  Oh, and after nearly decking a guy for comparing me to a stubbed-out cigarette end, I learnt that “butt” is a popular Welsh greeting among people of the Valleys.

I’ll stop moaning in a minute, but not before I get to “yur”…

This is the epitome of Welsh-endorsed confusion.  Within this one word is contained every vowel and single-syllable word conceivable.  ‘Ear’ becomes “yur”; ‘year’ pronounced “yur”; ‘here’ – “yur” ; ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ – “yur” ; Yup, yes and maybe – all become “yur”.  Keep in mind continuity in dialogue is maintained through a constant use of ‘I’, ‘by’, ‘like’ and ‘yur’ and you see how the Welsh are the only race in the world capable of quite credibly saying:

            “A’iite butt.  I yurd yur movin’ down by yur next yur?”

            “Yur. Bu’ you yurd my mewsic like, yur’ll yurt yur yurs like inneh.” *

To which the only response I can muster is… “izzeh?”

* English translation of above conversation:

“Hello my good sir, how are you this fine day?  A little bird told me you might be moving down to the vicinity of our humble abode next year.  Might there be any truth in this rumour?”

“Why yes indeed, old chap.  But I might hasten to add that you’re already familiar with my musical prowess – perhaps my moving down might be somewhat painful on your ears at times?”