ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 127

Mormon Church has misled members on $100 billion tax-exempt investment fund, whistleblower alleges

By Jon Swaine, Douglas MacMillan, and Michelle Boorstein A former investment manager alleges in a whistleblower complaint to the Internal Revenue Service that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has amassed about $100 billion in accounts intended for charitable purposes, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by The Washington Post. The …

Giant Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy May Have a Friend

By Smadar Naoz Do supermassive black holes have friends? The nature of galaxy formation suggests that the answer is yes, and in fact, pairs of supermassive black holes should be common in the universe. I am an astrophysicist and am interested in a wide range of theoretical problems in astrophysics, from the formation of the very …

Dear Democrats: Four religion requests from non-religious Americans

By Hemant Mehta On a recent Monday night in Iowa City, Sen. Elizabeth Warren was asked at a town hall if she had a plan “for protecting the rights of atheists and other non-believers.” The Democratic presidential candidate who frequently boasts about having “a plan for that” sidestepped the question entirely. While briefly acknowledging laws protecting freedom …

Gabon bans gay sex as global pace of reform falters

By Rachel Savage Gabon has passed a law against gay sex, becoming the 70th country to ban the practice, an official confirmed, as the global pace of reform falters. The central African country banned “sexual relations between people of the same sex” in a new penal code earlier this year, according to copies of the …

Facing Backlash, Hallmark Channel Says It Will ‘Reinstate’ Ad Of Lesbian Brides

By Laurel Wamsley Facing a barrage of criticism for pulling ads featuring a lesbian couple from its airwaves, the Hallmark Channel has reversed course, and says it will now work to “reinstate the commercials.” The ad for the wedding planning site Zola shows a couple at the altar, wishing they had used the service before …

NASA finds ‘water ice’ just below the surface of Mars

By Georgina Torbet To explore the solar system beyond our planet, one important factor is the ability to locate water which can be used for drinking and for creating rocket fuel. To assist in the hunt for water on neighboring Mars, NASA has released a “treasure map” of potential ice locations on the red planet. …

The decline of religion in American family life

By Daniel A. Cox Most Americans today continue to be raised in a religious denomination or tradition. Only 12 percent of Americans report being raised outside a formal religious tradition. Half (50 percent) report being raised Protestant, close to three in 10 (29 percent) say they were raised Catholic, and significantly fewer Americans were brought …

India just redefined its citizenship criteria to exclude Muslims

By Sigal Samuel India is home to 200 million Muslims. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, they have faced mounting threats to their status in the majority-Hindu country. And on Wednesday, they were walloped by a new worrisome development: The upper house of India’s Parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). The legislation turns religion into a …

She needed to fill her prescription for the morning-after pill. The pharmacist refused because of his ‘beliefs.’

By Katie Shepherd A severe snowstorm was brewing in McGregor, Minn., when Andrea Anderson called her doctor after a condom mishap left her in need of an emergency contraceptive to prevent an unwanted pregnancy last January. “The next morning, I got up and said, ‘We can’t roll the dice,’” she told KSTP. Her gynecologist told the 39-year-old mother …

Is this cave painting humanity’s oldest story?

By Ewen Callaway A cave-wall depiction of a pig and buffalo hunt is the world’s oldest recorded story, claim archaeologists who discovered the work on the Indonesian island Sulawesi. The scientists say the scene is more than 44,000 years old. The 4.5-metre-long panel features reddish-brown forms that seem to depict human-like figures hunting local animal …