ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 112

A Teen Girl’s Life Remains in Danger After Insulting Islam in an Instagram Rant

By Hemant Mehta About two weeks ago, spurred by an Instagram troll who was harassing her as a “dirty lesbian” and invoking Allah to condemn her, a 16-year-old French girl named Mila posted a video condemning Islam (and religion overall). She didn’t hold anything back. She said she hated religion, that the Qur’an was full of hate, that …

Coronavirus Misinformation Is Spreading All Over Social Media

By Gerrit De Vynck, Riley Griffin, and Alyza Sebenius The new coronavirus roiling financial markets and prompting travel bans is taking on a life of its own on the internet, once again putting U.S.-based social media companies on the defensive about their efforts to curb the spread of false or dangerous information. Researchers and journalists …

Two major banks pull support from Florida school voucher programs because of anti-LGBTQ policies

By Valerie Strauss (Update: Comment from Wells Fargo; a third company withdraws support) Two of the largest banks in the country are ending — at least temporarily — financial support for a Florida school voucher program after a newspaper investigation found that scores of participating schools have policies that discriminate against LGBTQ students. A third …

Montana’s Original Sin

By Garrett Epps Let’s play a game beloved by judges and lawyers: Dueling Hypotheticals. Hypothetical one: In 1889, Congress offers statehood to an American territory, but only on condition that its constitution will set up public schools “free from sectarian control.” It promises to do so, and Montana is born. Nearly a century later, in …

Paula White Says Video About ‘Satanic Pregnancies’ Was Taken Out of Context

By Mihir Zaveri and Johnny Diaz Paula White, a Florida televangelist and religious adviser to President Trump, defended herself Sunday after a video circulated online of her calling for the miscarriage of “satanic pregnancies,” language that she said was taken out of context by critics. The clip, which is about a minute and 30 seconds …

Pastor John Ortberg allowed volunteer who was attracted to minors to work with children

By Bob Smietana John Ortberg, a popular evangelical author and megachurch pastor, betrayed a “bond of trust” by allowing a church volunteer who admitted being attracted to minors to still work with children, according to a statement from the elders at the Bay Area church he leads. “In July of 2018, a person serving in …

U.S. university in Qatar cancels Lebanese band talk after anti-gay backlash

By Alexander Cornwell An American university canceled an event at its Qatar campus featuring a prominent Middle East band whose singer is openly gay, after an online backlash in the conservative Gulf Arab state sparked safety concerns. Members of Lebanese indie rock band Mashrou’ Leila were scheduled to take part in a discussion about “media …

Class-Action Lawsuit: The Catholic Church Is Hoarding Donations to Charity

By Hemant Mehta David O’Connell, a Rhode Island native, is suing the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for what he’s calling charity fraud. The USCCB has long promoted its Peter’s Pence charity to help people affected by “war, oppression, natural disaster or disease.” But O’Connell, a donor to that charity, says as little as 10% of the …

New York Times Goop Fail

By Steven Novella This has to be the worst opinion piece I have read in a major news outlet in a long time. The authors, Elisa Albert and Jennifer Block, leave behind them a killing field of straw men and empty containers of metaphorical “Kool Aid.” Here is the short version – they are defending Gwyneth Paltrow’s …

Underwater robot reveals hidden base of Antarctica’s ‘doomsday’ glacier

By Paul Voosen Using a robot dropped through a 700-meter hole in the ice, scientists stationed on Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier have captured the first video of the glacier’s grounding line, the mysterious boundary where ice meets land and where warm ocean water could be slowly melting the glacier’s base—putting it at risk of collapse (above). Battling …