ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 196

Catholic Agency Sues Michigan Over Adoption Rules Protecting LGBTQ+ People

By David G. McAfee The state of Michigan made a reasonable decision in order to reduce discrimination against LGBTQ+ families and, like clockwork, a faith-based institution is there to challenge the order. In this case, a Catholic adoption agency that was sued for discrimination by a same-sex couple is now itself suing the state. St. Vincent Catholic …

Hours After Pigs’ Death, Scientists Restore Brain Cell Activity

By Rachael Rettner In a radical experiment that has some experts questioning what it means to be “alive,” scientists have restored brain circulation and some cell activity in pigs’ brains hours after the animals died in a slaughterhouse. The results, though done in pigs and not humans, challenge the long-held view that, after death, brain …

The First Known Interstellar Meteor May Have Hit Earth in 2014

By Charles Q. Choi The first meteor to hit Earth from interstellar space — and the second known interstellar visitor overall — may have just been discovered, a new study finds. Interstellar meteors may be common, and could potentially help life travel from star to star, researchers added. The first known visitor from interstellar space, a cigar-shaped …

Saturn’s Moon Titan May Have ‘Phantom Lakes’ and Caves

By Meghan Bartels Picture a world where rain falls, gathers in lakes and ponds, seeps into the surrounding rock, and evaporates away, only to fall again. There’s just one catch: The world is Saturn’s moon, Titan, where the rain isn’t water; it’s liquid methane. Two new papers explore how this eerily familiar, waterless “water cycle” manifests …

Bangladesh starlet apologises after ‘atheist’ comments

By the AFP A Bangladeshi actress has been forced to apologise after remarks construed as admitting atheism in a country where people have been murdered for renouncing religion. Safa Kabir, an actress and model who has appeared in top Bangladeshi television dramas, told a private radio station this week she did not believe in the …

Christian Pedophile Roy Moore Leads Alabama GOP 2020 Senate Race

By Michael Stone Alabama Republicans love Christian pedophile Roy Moore: Conservative Christian darling and former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore leads the field of potential 2020 Senate Republican candidates. Alabama Politics reports: A new poll released Tuesday has former U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore as the top choice among GOP primary voters likely to vote …

This scientist thinks she has the key to curb climate change: super plants

By Adam Popescu If this were a film about humanity’s last hope before climate change wiped us out, Hollywood would be accused of flagrant typecasting. That’s because Dr Joanne Chory is too perfect for the role to be believable. The esteemed scientist – who has long banged the climate drum and now leads a project that …

Astronomers Have Found Potential Life-Supporting Conditions on The Nearest Exoplanet

By Matt Williams In August of 2016, astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) announced the discovery of an exoplanet in the neighboring system of Proxima Centauri. The news was greeted with considerable excitement, as this was the closest rocky planet to our Solar System that also orbited within its star’s habitable zone. Since then, multiple …

Justice Thomas Fails on Religious Test Answer

By Andrew L. Seidel It’s amazing how much a Supreme Court justice can get wrong in one answer. And how little that Supreme Court justice—an originalist at that—seems to know about the origins of our Constitution. Justice Clarence Thomas spoke at Pepperdine Law School a few weeks ago. Pepperdine is of course a Christian school with a religious …

Michele Bachmann: Trump is the Most “Godly, Biblical” President We’ve Ever Seen

By Hemant Mehta Former congresswoman Michele Bachmann said on the show “Understanding the Times” with host Jan Markell over the weekend that Donald Trump was the most “biblical president” she’s even seen. (You can hear it around the 33:32 mark of the audio.) … I will say to your listeners, in my lifetime, I have never seen a more biblical president than I …