ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 104

Madrid court acquits Spanish actor of blasphemy complaint

By the AFP A Madrid court has acquitted Spanish actor Willy Toledo in a blasphemy case after he was accused of making comments offensive to religious sentiment, according to court documents seen by AFP on Saturday. Toledo, a film and television actor, went on trial February 17 over comments posted on his Facebook account in …

The Real Meaning of ‘Religious Liberty’: A License to Discriminate

By Katherine Stewart This past January, on national Religious Freedom Day, President Trump announced a new set of recommended regulations that will make it possible for essential care providers receiving government funds to discriminate on the basis of religion. Under the new regulations, a nonprofit religious organization that accepts government grants will potentially exclude gay …

William Barr’s America vs. reality in 2020

By Max Boot It has become conventional wisdom on the right that religion is under assault from secular liberals — and that the waning of faith is bad for America. Attorney General William P. Barr, a conservative Catholic, summed up this alarmist outlook last fall during an incendiary speech at Notre Dame. He bemoaned “the steady erosion …

China gets ‘mixed report card’ in its coronavirus response. How will the US do?

By Laura Geggel Now that the new coronavirus is expected to spread across the United States, many people are wondering whether the country is up for the challenge. The first U.S. death linked to the coronavirus was reported in Washington state over the weekend, where officials say up to 1,500 people may have been infected, The New York Times reported. …

OK Bill to Put “In God We Trust” Signs in Buildings Would Cost Taxpayers $85,500

By Hemant Mehta As I pointed out earlier in the week, Republican lawmakers in Oklahoma are trying to pass a bill, HB 3817, that would require all state-run buildings (including public schools) to display the words “In God We Trust.” It’s a bill that’s likely to pass given the makeup of the legislature. But atheists are at least …

Cleveland pastor charged with prostitution; arrested by human trafficking task force

By Julia Tullos A local reverend was arrested Tuesday by the Cuyahoga Regional Human Trafficking Task Force. Reverend Randolph Brown, 64, is the pastor at Inner-City Missionary Baptist Church on East 55th Street in Cleveland. Brown was indicted on two counts of compelling prostitution. Court documents show the date of the offense was Aug. 1, 2018. A second …

Moving home: Church and state converge at Kentucky’s foster care crisis

By Alex Acquisto It was early evening in late August and former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin was talking into a microphone on a stage in the youth sanctuary at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington. He had arrived late, and was wearing the same black suit and blue tie he’d worn earlier that day to escort …

A Trump Insider Embeds Climate Denial in Scientific Research

By Hiroko Tabuchi An official at the Interior Department embarked on a campaign that has inserted misleading language about climate change — including debunked claims that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is beneficial — into the agency’s scientific reports, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. The misleading language appears in at …

OPEN DISCUSSION MARCH 2020

This thread has been created for discussion on themes relevant to Reason and Science for which there are not currently any dedicated threads. If you would like to refer back to previous open discussion threads, the three most recent ones can be accessed via the links below (but please continue any discussions from them here …

Enter the twilight zone: scientists dive into the oceans’ mysterious middle

By Jeff Tollefson It is home to a majority of the marine fish biomass and helps to remove an estimated 4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year. Now, scientists are gearing up to dive into the twilight zone, the largely unexplored ocean layer 200 to 1,000 metres deep that some worry …