ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 134

Is There Actually Science Behind ‘Dopamine Fasting’?

By Nicoletta Lanese “Dopamine fasting” may be Silicon Valley’s latest wellness trend — but does this sciency-sounding fad actually have evidence to back it up? During a so-called dopamine fast, extreme practitioners abstain from any experience that brings them pleasure, including but not limited to sex, food, exercise, social media, video games and talking, according …

West Virginia Library Tries to Ban Queer-Inclusive Children’s Book

By Sam Manzella LGBTQ advocates are pushing back after a public library in West Virginia pulled and attempted to ban a queer-inclusive children’s book from its shelves. Earlier this month, a library in Upshur County removed Prince & Knight—a children’s book featuring a gay love story—from shelves after local pastor Josh Layfield complained about the book “[indoctrinating] young …

How Kanye West put Joel Osteen’s prosperity gospel back under the spotlight

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey A performance by artist Kanye West at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston on Sunday has launched a debate among Christians over controversial prosperity gospel teachings and the role of race in conservative evangelical Christianity. “Kanye West and Joel Osteen are a match made in market-driven heaven,” said Jonathan L. Walton, …

Christian Group Unveils List of “Naughty” Companies That Downplay Christmas

By Sarahbeth Caplin Liberty Counsel, the Religious Right hate group, has once again released its annual “Naughty and Nice” list (a.k.a. the “Friend or Foe” list), telling Christians where they ought to shop over the winter. The “Nice” list includes companies that promote Christmas (by name) and Jesus. The “Naughty” list includes the companies that say “Happy Holidays” because …

A whole new world: astronomers draw first global map of Titan

By Jonathan O’Callaghan Astronomers have used data from NASA’s Cassini mission to map the entire surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, for the first time. Their charts reveal a diverse terrain of mountains, plains, valleys, craters and lakes unlike anywhere in the Solar System outside Earth. The Cassini spacecraft orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017 …

Atheists Sue TN School District for Constantly Pushing Christianity on Kids

By Hemant Mehta The ACLU and its Tennessee chapter are suing the Smith County School System in Nashville, Tennessee over its longstanding illegal promotion of Christianity. According to Kelly Butler (an Army veteran) and his two kids, and Sharona and Jason Carr and their three kids, the district has a habit of pushing religion on kids. That’s a problem for all …

Paige Patterson feared backslide after election of first black SBC president

By Adelle M. Banks A newly discovered letter from one former prominent leader of the Southern Baptist Convention to another reveals a depth of mistrust and suspicion toward the denomination’s first black president. Shortly after the convention’s 2012 meeting, Paige Patterson, then a seminary president and the architect of the denomination’s conservative turn, sent a …

Chick-fil-A Won’t Entirely Rule Out Donating to Anti-LGBTQ Charities Again

By Leila Ettachfini The country’s former favorite chicken sandwich giant Chick-fil-A announced a major change to its charitable arm of business on Monday. Come 2020, the fast food chain will no longer donate to the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, two organizations that have historically opposed LGBTQ rights including same-sex marriage. Chick-fil-A says it will now focus …

Neutrinos Lead to Unexpected Discovery in Basic Math

By Natalie Wolchover After breakfast one morning in August, the mathematician Terence Tao opened an email from three physicists he didn’t know. The trio explained that they’d stumbled across a simple formula that, if true, established an unexpected relationship between some of the most basic and important objects in linear algebra. The formula “looked too good …

Pope Francis Condemns Anti-Semitism and LGBTQ Hate, and It’s Still Not Enough

By Sarahbeth Caplin Last week, in two separate statements, Pope Francis denounced both anti-Semitism as well as politicians who persecuted gay people. In the latter case, he compared them to Hitler. Yet both actions are ones the Catholic Church has been associated with throughout its history. The Church remains one of the strongest forces against LGBTQ rights. “And I must …