ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 145

Humans Will Never Live on Another Planet, Nobel Laureate Says. Here’s Why.

By Yasemin Saplakoglu Here’s the reality: We’re messing up the Earth and any far-out ideas of colonizing another orb when we’re done with our own are wishful thinking. That’s according to Michel Mayor, an astrophysicist who was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics this year for discovering the first planet orbiting a sun-like star outside …

A Mississippi Teacher Told Students He Hoped They Would All “Find Jesus Someday”

By Hemant Mehta The American Humanist Association says a Mississippi teacher and football coach at Bay High School has repeatedly violated the Constitution by pushing his Christian faith on students and athletes. In a letter sent to the school’s principal and district superintendent, the AHA documented instances of Eric Collins proselytizing to kids. He told kids in his class he hoped …

Uganda plans bill imposing death penalty for gay sex

By Nita Bhalla Uganda announced plans on Thursday for a bill that would impose the death penalty on homosexuals, saying the legislation would curb a rise in unnatural sex in the east African nation. The bill – colloquially known as “Kill the Gays” in Uganda – was nullified five years ago on a technicality and …

Barr slams attacks on religious values, says ‘moral upheaval’ leading to societal ills

By David Shortell Attorney General Bill Barr decried attacks on religious values in a speech Friday, tying a movement of “militant secularism” to societal maladies including the opioid epidemic and “an increase in senseless violence.” Speaking to an audience at the University of Notre Dame Law School, Barr outlined a grim vision of cultural trends, saying a …

Mini Gravitational-Wave Detector Could Probe Dark Matter

By Jeremy Hsu Within one second of the big bang, the first newborn black holes may have announced their formation with gravitational waves that stretched and squeezed the fabric of existence as they rippled outward into the expanding universe. Now researchers at Northwestern University have begun planning a tabletop-size sensor that could detect these primordial …

As STI Rates Soar, Trump Is Funding Clinics That Don’t Believe in Condoms

By Marie Solis Amid record rates of sexually transmitted infections, the Trump administration is handing out millions of dollars in federal funds to religiously affiliated health centers that don’t believe in condoms and refuse to supply them. Earlier this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its annual report on STDs in the United States, announcing that, …

Trump’s Bible Study Leader is Working with a Homophobic Ukrainian Politician

By Megan Hamilton He teaches weekly Bible study classes for members of the Trump administration and members of Congress. As the founder of Capitol Ministries, he counts Vice President Mike Pence and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos among his followers. He uses his influence with Donald Trump and those around him to tighten his octopus-like grip on countries, including Honduras, Nicaragua, and several other Latin …

Are cracks showing in Trump’s support with evangelicals?

By Eugene Scott Since the earliest days of his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump has been able to rely on the support of the white evangelical community when other groups have walked away. But this week has revealed two specific incidents suggesting that the president’s grip on this group of conservative Christians might not be …

Giant sauropod dinosaurs may have sported turtlelike beaks

By John Pickrell Typically taller than four elephants and heftier than a jet airliner, sauropods are among the most famous of the dinosaurs. But scientists may have been wrong about one of their key features. Instead of lizardlike lips, the behemoths sported beaks akin to those of birds or turtles, researchers report here today at …

After Simple Request, Indiana Official Tells Atheists to Stop “Causing Trouble”

By Hemant Mehta During a meeting of the Porter County Board of Commissioners in Indiana yesterday, there was a heated discussion over who could use the local courthouse lawn on December 6, where religious displays had previously been allowed. For years now, a local non-profit group called Valparaiso Events has booked the space for a …