ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 173

Pastor Guilty of Sex Trafficking Children Asks Judge to “Have Mercy” on Him

By Hemant Mehta Last May, an Ohio pastor pleaded guilty to multiple counts of child sex trafficking. Kenneth Butler was sentenced to nearly 18 years in prison for his role in sexually assaulting underage girls (plural), including one was was a foster child and a previous victim of sexual abuse. The details were even more disturbing than the charges themselves. The …

Robots, Not Humans, Are The New Space Explorers

By Joe Palca When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon 50 years ago, it was an inspiring moment for people around the world. But another kind of explorer is responsible for much of the modern enthusiasm for space exploration. “Since the days of Apollo, the greatest adventures in space have been these robots that …

Atheists to IRS: Investigate Christian Non-Profit That Endorsed Rep. Jim Jordan

By Hemant Mehta Rep. Paul Ryan announced more than a year ago that he wouldn’t be running for re-election to Congress and that meant he would be giving up his position as Speaker of the House. Democrats dominated the midterms and Nancy Pelosi ultimately took that spot, but before that happened, there was a lot of jockeying among …

Nonprofit Christian Hospital Suspends Debt Collection Lawsuits Amid Furor Over Suing Its Own Employees

By Wendi C. Thomas Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, the largest hospital system in Memphis, Tennessee, said it has suspended “court collection activities” over unpaid medical bills, days after an investigation by MLK50 and ProPublica detailed its relentless pursuit of debts held by poor people and even its own employees. “We recognize that we serve a diverse community …

What the Measles Epidemic Really Says About America

By Peter Beinart In two essays, “Illness as Metaphor” in 1978 and “AIDS and Its Metaphors” in 1988, the critic Susan Sontag observed that you can learn a lot about a society from the metaphors it uses to describe disease. She also suggested that disease itself can serve as a metaphor—a reflection of the society through …

DNA Begins to Unlock Secrets of the Ancient Philistines

By Nicholas St. Fleur For thousands of years, the story of the Philistines has been told through the lens of their enemies, such as the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians and the writers of the Hebrew Bible — who described David’s defeat of Goliath, the mighty Philistine warrior. While little of the Philistines’ stories about themselves …

The Largest Black Holes in the Universe Formed in a Snap — Then Stopped

By Brandon Specktor About 13 billion years ago, when our universe was still just a scrappy startup, the cosmos hit a creative streak and churned out supermassive black holes left, right and center. Astronomers can still sneak a peek at these relics of the early universe when they look at quasars, incredibly large, outstandingly bright objects …

Catholics Walk Out of Sermon After Priest Urges Forgiveness for Sexual Predators

By Hemant Mehta Around 70 Catholics walked out of a service after retired priest Ulrich Zurkuhlen urged everyone to practice forgiveness… for predator priests who had been found guilty of molesting children. Zurkuhlen was trying to make the case that no one is purely evil and that the pedophiles were also “good clerics in their communities,” but the Church members, some …

Evangelical group hoped to shut down debate on gays. That may not be possible.

By Yonat Shimron In voting to expel a Minneapolis congregation and two pastors from its ranks at its annual meeting last week, the Evangelical Covenant Church attempted to close off debate about LGBTQ inclusion. Explaining the majority’s decision, ECC President John Wenrich argued that the church and the two pastors were “refusing to live in …

Scientists regret to inform you that this mystery space object is (probably) not aliens

By Morgan Krakow All of the stars Matthew Knight saw through the giant telescope in Arizona were bright with persistent light. All of them but one, which appeared to be flashing, in a way — light that went in and out, dull and then bright, every hour. He assumed there was something wrong with his …