ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 199

If Mars Had Water, Where Did It Go?

By Daniel Kolitz It’ll be a fine day for Poland Spring, when Mars is finally colonized: bottled’s the only option, when you’re living on a planet whose last substantial traces of flowing liquid water disappeared a few billion years ago. That ancient water has occasioned much study and debate, and provided the name for at …

New York Jewish Seminary Refuses to Ordain Gay Rabbinical Student

By Brandon Voss A gay rabbinical student has been denied ordination at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, a liberal Orthodox Jewish seminary in New York City. Daniel Atwood, 27, was in his fourth year at the Bronx yeshiva. Despite criticism from students, alumni, and Jewish LGBTQ groups, YCT leaders stand firmly behind their sudden decision to cancel …

Iraq’s atheists go underground as Sunni, Shiite hard-liners dominate

By F. Brinley Bruton Fadi does not believe in God, and he is terrified. In a Baghdad cafe, the medical student sits far from other customers, and glances over his shoulder to make sure nobody is watching and listening. “I am afraid of being discovered — then I would be killed,” he says in a …

Despite the Mormon Church’s Policy Change, People Are Still Resigning

By Hemant Mehta This week, the Mormon Church announced that they would no longer put same-sex couples under the “apostasy” label and their children could be baptized without denouncing their parents’ relationship. It took three years, but they were undoing a move that resulted in mass protests and tens of thousands of resignations. So has the …

Dead Planet’s Heavy Metal Core Found Rocketing Around a Dead Sun in a Distant Solar System

By Brandon Specktor In case you forgot that nature is totally metal, astronomers have discovered the shattered remains of a dead planet orbiting a dead sun in a distant, desolate solar system. The dead planet’s broken heart consists of heavy metal, and it orbits at breakneck speed through a dirty cosmic boneyard full of other …

Far-Right Christian Activist Just Barely Loses Race for City Council in Colorado

By Hemant Mehta Christian activist Gordon Klingenschmitt, who won a seat in the Colorado House of Representatives in 2014, lost his bid for the City Council in Colorado Springs. But not by much. It’s important to understand just how disastrous and toxic he would’ve been. The most obvious obvious example of that occurred in 2015 when …

The strange sight of a solar eclipse on Mars

By Brian Resnick On Earth, total solar eclipses are spectacular events. But they’re the result of a total coincidence: The moon in the moments it passes between Earth and the sun is just the right size to cover the sun completely from where we stand. It blots it out, revealing the sun’s atmosphere, the great glowing solar …

Private school sues to get anti-discrimination ordinance overturned despite being exempt from law

By Alex Bollinger A Catholic school in Ohio is suing over a municipal law that bans discrimination against LGBTQ people. South Euclid, a suburb of Cleveland, passed an ordinance last year that banned discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, and public accommodations. The ordinance has an exemption for any “religious …

Ancient Four-Legged Whale Swam Across Oceans, Walked Across Continents

By Kimberly Hickok Picture an animal that looks like a mix between a rhino and a sea otter: It has a narrow head; a long, muscular tail; and four stocky legs with hoofed toes and webbed feet. A new study suggests that’s more or less what the walking, swimming ancestors of modern-day whales looked like …

Texas bans chaplains from its execution chamber

By Jolie McCullough and Elizabeth Byrne The state of Texas has banned all prison chaplains from its execution chamber, days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state could not execute an inmate without allowing a Buddhist chaplain into the death chamber with him. The high court last week halted the execution of Patrick Murphy, a …