ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 170

Atheism and Islam on the rise in the UK as Christianity suffers ‘dramatic decline’

By Gabriella Swerling Christian belief has halved in Britain in 35 years with just one in three people now identifying as Christian – while atheism and Islam continue to rise. Figures published by the British Social Attitudes Survey reveal the widest ever margin between staunch atheists and believers who are certain that God exists. Of …

The chaplain of the U.S. House ‘cast out all spirits of darkness’ in his chamber prayer amid racism fight

By Michelle Boorstein The chaplain of the House of Representatives said in his opening prayer Thursday that he would “cast out all spirits of darkness from this chamber,” reflecting the dramatic moral terms in which many Americans see our political climate. The Rev. Patrick Conroy, a Jesuit priest, later told CNN that the idea for …

Meet John Houbolt: He Figured Out How To Go To The Moon, But Few Were Listening

By Scott Neuman The Apollo program conjures images of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon and the massive team effort involved in getting him there. But a fundamental decision that led to the successful lunar landings came largely as a result of one man’s determination to buck the system at NASA. That man was John …

Facing financial boycott, West Virginia’s Catholic diocese agrees to hire new auditor and make findings public

By Michelle Boorstein A few days before protesting West Virginia Catholics were to begin withholding financial giving over alleged misconduct, diocesan leaders agreed to some of their demands, including hiring a new auditor and making that person’s findings public, an organizing laypersons’ group said Wednesday. That would give West Virginia Catholics the first look at …

This gay teen’s earlobe was cut off by his family to ‘mark’ him

By Joe Morgan A gay teen says his family cut off his earlobe to ‘mark’ him as an abomination. Modou, a 19-year-old from The Gambia, is seeking asylum in the Netherlands on the basis of his sexual orientation. Homosexuality is punished with life imprisonment in The Gambia. Former President Yahya Jammeh threatened to ‘cut the …

Confessions of a Former Anti-Vaxxer

By Gwenna Laithland I knew going into my first marriage that the man I was about to call my husband had absolutely zero interest in having children. I wasn’t outright opposed to kids, but it was still a faraway idea. I was just 22 years old; I had a lot of living left to do. …

How fast is the Universe expanding? Cosmologists just got more confused

By Davide Castelvecchi For much of this decade, the two most precise gauges of the Universe’s rate of expansion have been in glaring disagreement. Now, a highly anticipated independent technique that cosmologists hoped would solve the conundrum is instead adding to the confusion. In results unveiled1 on 16 July and due to appear in the Astrophysical Journal, a team …

Alleged Child Molester Roy Moore Isn’t Raising Much Cash for His Senate Campaign

By Hemant Mehta Poor Roy Moore. The alleged child molester and Christian supremacist famously lost his race for a U.S. Senate seat from Alabama last year, and he recently announced he’s running again, even though no one really wanted him to. (Except, maybe, every Democrat.) According to his latest filings with the Federal Election Commission, he’s raised less than $17,000 for his …

50 years after Apollo, conspiracy theorists are still howling at the ‘moon hoax’

By Joel Achenbach The moon is having a star turn. This summer will mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, and the Trump administration has ordered NASA to put astronauts back on the moon by 2024. None of this, however, will probably change the minds of people who live in a parallel belief universe where …

The ‘Religious Freedom’ Agenda

By Mattahias Schwartz Behind the Oval Office circus of drama and distraction, conservatives are quietly reshaping government in ways that could resonate for generations to come. One major front is the integration of religion into foreign policy, in which the phrase religious freedom figures prominently—in the same way it did during the George W. Bush administration. As …