ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 119

7 Billion-Year-Old Stardust Is Oldest Material Found on Earth

By Mindy Weisberger Scientists recently identified the oldest material on Earth: stardust that’s 7 billion years old, tucked away in a massive, rocky meteorite that struck our planet half a century ago. This ancient interstellar dust, made of presolar grains (dust grains that predate our sun), was belched into the universe by dying stars during the final …

Marriage Equality Finally Legal in Northern Ireland

By Jacob Ogles Marriage equality is the law of the land in Northern Ireland beginning today. It’s been a complicated road for Northern Ireland to join the rest of the United Kingdom in legalizing both same-sex marriage and abortion. But after the U.K.’s Parliament stepped in following a collapse of the Northern Ireland government, the day when …

Why schism? United Methodist leaders explain proposal to split the denomination

By Emily McFarlan Miller The 16 United Methodist bishops and advocacy group leaders who negotiated a recent proposal to split the denomination explained their reasoning at an event held Monday (Jan. 13) that was streamed live by United Methodist News Service. They also forecast dire consequences if the proposal, officially called “A Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace …

Texas Is Hostile to Abortion, So People Are Doing It Themselves

By Marie Solis The nature of self-managed abortion means that, for decades, little has been known about how it’s practiced in the United States, or if it’s practiced at all. The method usually involves sourcing pills on the internet, and taking them at home, outside of a traditional clinic or hospital setting that would otherwise be …

Oldest Guts Ever Found May Reveal the Identity of a Mysterious Primordial Creature

By Stephanie Pappas Tiny, tubular fossils found in Nevada may contain the oldest digestive tracts ever found. The fossils date back more than half a billion years, to the late Ediacaran period. That makes them about 30 million years older than the next-oldest fossilized guts on record. More important than their age, though, is that …

Court reverses $35M verdict against Jehovah’s Witnesses

By Matt Volz The Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed a $35 million judgment against the Jehovah’s Witnesses for not reporting a girl’s sexual abuse to authorities. Montana law requires officials, including clergy, to report child abuse to state authorities when there is reasonable cause for suspicion. However, the state’s high court said in its …

With STDs Rising, Advocates Hope State Legislators Will Fix Harmful Sex Ed Laws

By Martha Kempner As state legislative sessions kick off this month, advocates will push for improved sexuality education policies to curb the alarming rates of sexually transmitted infections and diseases (STIs and STDs) among young people. States like Montana—where gonorrhea numbers are at a 40-year high—and Michigan have reported surges in STIs like chlamydia, syphilis, and gonorrhea. These …

One goal of Methodists’ plan to split the church over same-sex marriage and clergy: Avoid lawsuits

By Julie Zauzmer Leaders of the United Methodist Church took notice when other Protestant denominations began allowing same-sex marriage — and in some cases were hit with a wave of lawsuits. Conservative Episcopalians and Presbyterians, opposed to any new stance on homosexuality, wanted to break away from their denominations. And they wanted to take their …

Our Galaxy Has Thousands of Alien Stars That Didn’t Come from the Milky Way

By Rafi Letzter We’re on our way to kill some galaxies, but long before that happens, we’re already eating little chunks of them. That’s the conclusion of a new pair of papers published Dec. 5 and Dec. 15 last year in The Astrophysical Journal. Researchers found a few thousand strange young stars at the edge of our galaxy, the …

Brazilian Judge Orders Netflix to Temporarily Pull Satire Film with Gay Jesus

By Hemant Mehta Just weeks after Netflix premiered a Portuguese-language satire called The First Temptation of Christ by the comedy team Porta dos Fundos, in which Jesus is shown in a same-sex relationship, things have just gone from bad to worse in Brazil. The headquarters of the creators were firebombed, and there was a petition online signed by well …