Yesterday I read an interesting story here about an Iranian exile that goes by the pseudonym of Sooreh Hera. Hera is a photographer in the Netherlands who’s on a dangerous mission to expose the “hypocritical” attitude towards homosexuality in countries such as Iran, where men can be hanged for homosexual conduct.

There were probably a few different ways in which Hera could have approached the subject. She could take a subtler politically correct route or she could skip the foreplay and get right down to business. Hera chose the latter.

Being a photographer, and having balls of steel apparently, Hera decided to go for broke. She photographed gay Iranian exiles wearing masks of the Prophet Muhammed and his cousin Ali. She also created a video featuring hard rock, Iranian clerics, and gay men. Then to top things off she made it an exhibit at a local museum!

As expected, the local Muslim extremists were none too pleased. Hera has received several threats and recently went into hiding. Furthermore Hera’s exhibit, which was initially praised by the museum’s director, has been forced to remove the photographs because “certain people in our society might perceive it as offensive”. Hera’s response was to pull her entire exhibit in protest.

Below you’ll find a few photos from the exhibit along with the video. Be warned, as the video is a little racy.

Happy New Year everyone!

I am in the finals stages of the new layout/features and I am pretty pleased with the results thus far. I’m not going to give too many details here because I’d rather just release it and let you see for yourselves. I will have it up later this week for everyone to see and critique :)

On another note… I hope everyone had a fun New Years. For me it was a pretty big event in that I’m happy to put 2007 behind me and move on to the next year with optimism.

Regards,

gasmonso

Tis the season for a little Christmas, err Holiday cheer. Have a look at this FarkTV video and watch Santa’s posse take on an island full of recalled toys to make this Christmas, err Holiday season safe for all the little boys and girls.

Now here’s a story that proves fiction is stranger than truth. Thank Shaze for the tip-off.

Today in Australia, 33-year-old Englishman Alexander Christian York, was sentenced to five years in prison for the manslaughter of Scotsman Rudi Boa last January.

The two were chance neighbors at a caravan park on vacation. His girlfriend Gillian Brown accompanied Boa and both were biomedical scientists. Both were evolutionists. York had a more religious view on things and was a creationist.

The three were at a local pub arguing evolution and putting back several pints (never a good idea.) It didn’t take too long for tempers to flare and a shouting match to occur.

The drunken trio returned to their campground and continued their debate as York began preparing dinner outside his tent with a kitchen knife (definitely not a good idea.) It wasn’t long till York “accidentally” misplaced his kitchen knife inside Boa’s body, thus ending the argument once and for all.

I recently received an email from an Atheist reader who needs some advice. Originally he addressed his problem to me, but I quickly asked if I could share it with the collective :) He quickly agreed so without further ado, let’s help out David :)

David wrote:

Hello friend! I’ve recently stumbled upon your website and wow, I have never met someone who agrees with the majority of my opinions on religion. So, congratulations on some very interesting reading. To set the record, I am an atheist of about 8 years. I grew up with a Catholic upbringing, but my parents (very logical people) started to move away from religion. We still have a great family, good morals, and an enjoyable life.

On another topic, I would like to pose a few questions to you. First, let me explain the situation. I am a mid-twenties college student pursuing a nursing degree at a 4-year college. I live on campus in an apartment style setup.

This year, I moved into my apartment with three new roommates whom each were randomly assigned to this living space. I found out very quickly that two of these roommates are very religious, conservative, Christians. I learned to stay out of religious and political debates very quickly with these two. One of my roommates participates in a Christian rock band. He obviously enjoys his music and loves to play it at significantly loud volumes. I have come to the conclusion that he does believe that he is bringing the word of God by playing his music. He knows that I am an Atheist and has done a lot to try to involve me with his religion.

What is your opinion on evangelism and conversion?

Have you had problems or ever noticed that some extremely religious people tend to have a sense of superiority? Some of this ego and evangelical behavior has detoured me from wanting to explore or learn about religion. Have you dealt much with these types of situations?

If you have read this far, thank you very much. I am sorry for being so long-winded. I am just curious about your perspective on these matters.

Thanks again,

David

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that over the course of the next few days and weeks I will be performing various upgrades and implementing some changes. If you experience some outages or quirky behavior this is probably the reason. Of course if its persistent please contact me in case I screwed something up :)

Also, if anyone has suggestions for my blog please don’t hesitate to contact me. I’m trying my best, but I don’t know everything :) Whether the suggestions are aesthetic or functional please share them with me!

Regards,

gasmonso

The other day Shaze emailed me with a clip of Sherri Shepherd from The View. For those of you who haven’t heard of Shepherd, she is an actress\comedian who has starred in several sitcoms and recently landed a co-host position on The View. I watched the video Shaze sent me and sat in disbelief.

Shepherd claims that Jesus, and thus Christianity, basically predates the Greeks and everything else for that matter. I guess the whole concept of B.C. doesn’t quite make sense to her. So as I mulled the thought of posting the video I decided to do a little more digging in to Shepherd which quickly led to another choice video clip from The View.

In this other clip, Shepherd defies all logic by denying Evolution. Sure that’s pretty absurd, but this is The View and Shepherd takes it to the next level when asked by Whoppi Goldberg is the Earth is flat. Shepherd quickly replies that she isn’t sure! Seriously… WTF?!?!?! I wanted to pour bleach in my eyes and stick ice picks in my ears to make the pain stop!

This got me thinking… a scary thought I know ;) I was raised a Catholic and deal with Christians on a regular basis (including my family). One thing I have noticed is the lack of knowledge that many possess with respects to their religion. To many, Christianity (or any other religion for that matter) is an insurance policy that’ll get them in to heaven. It’s something that you belong to because most people around you do (at least in the United States.) I wonder how many Christians truly understand the teachings of Jesus. I’m willing to bet if you quizzed many Christians on the basics of their religion, they would fail miserably. What are your experiences with some of your Christian friends and family? Are they for real? Or are they just full of crap and hoping that it’s their ticket in to heaven just in case there is one?

Lot’s of questions I know, but hey would you rather work? Enjoy!

Red Bull is getting in the Christmas spirit this season with their latest advertisement. While I find it quite entertaining, many Christians don’t. One Italian priest, Father Marco Damanti, went so far as to call it blasphemous and disrespectful to Christianity. He was so furious that he actually got the company to remove the ad entirely from Italian television!

By now you’re wondering what all the fuss is about. The commercial recreates the nativity scene and throws in a little twist by adding a fourth wise man carrying Red Bull. At the end of the commercial, angels fly above and say the company’s slogan, “Red Bull gives you wings.” Good stuff if I do say so myself.

Hats off to sidfaiwu for the story!

Recently, Israel has begun to roll out HDTV much like the rest of the world. But unlike most of the world, Israel has to cope with an ultra-fanatical religious sect known as the Haredim. Some of you might remember them from the infamous “crosswalk” article I wrote a year ago.

Essentially, these über-religious yokels follow the strictest form of Judaism. They are forbidden to watch television, films, read secular newspapers, surf the Internet for non-business purposes, etc. As a matter of fact, many phone carriers offer cell phones with limited capability just to accommodate the Haredim. But I digress (as usual.)

So when Yes TV of Israel decided to go High Def, they pulled out all the stops and went for broke. Take the Haredim and mix in a little Village People and this is what you get. This is brilliant and quite entertaining when you consider where this is airing. Bravo!

One a side note, I have to wonder what would happen if something like this aired in a Muslim country and targeted fanatical Muslims. Just a thought.