ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 207

Cardinal George Pell of Australia Sentenced to Six Years in Prison

By Livia Albeck-Ripka and Damien Cave MELBOURNE, Australia — George Pell, an Australian cardinal who was the Vatican’s chief financial officer and an adviser to Pope Francis, was sentenced to six years in prison on Wednesday, for molesting two boys after Sunday Mass in 1996. The cardinal was convicted on five counts in December, making him the …

DeVos allows religious groups to provide taxpayer-funded services in private schools

By Moriah Balingit and Morgan Smith Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced this week she would no longer enforce a rule that bars religious institutions from providing certain taxpayer-funded services in private schools, saying the restriction ran afoul of a recent high-court decision. Under the federal education law, private schools are entitled to many of the …

If We Blow Up an Asteroid, It Might Put Itself Back Together

By Robin George Andrews Faced with the prospect of a sizable asteroid heading toward Earth and causing doomsday, humanity has come up with various responses. Hollywood may reckon that the best way to destroy an errant space rock is with nuclear weapons. This is rarely the preferred option of experts, but using some sort of spacecraft system …

Rand Paul is wrong: Vaccines are no threat to liberty

By Saad B. Omer Vaccines are one of the most important advances in public health of the last two centuries. Immunization saves millions of lives every year, and horrific illnesses that were simply unavoidable not all that long ago have now been eliminated. So why does Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) see them as a threat to liberty? …

The Supreme Court Is Quietly Changing the Status of Religion in American Life

By Jeffrey Toobin Donald Trump may be imperilled by the ever-growing number of investigations into various avenues of his conduct, but his agenda continues apace at the Supreme Court. There, the President’s appointees and their allies are making quiet progress on another key goal of his political base: transforming the place of religion in American life. The …

A Genetic Basis for Insomnia Emerges from the Twilight

By Simon Makin Around a third of people complain of some sleeplessness, and one in 10 meets diagnostic criteria for clinical insomnia. The costs, in terms of well-being, physical health and productivity, are enormous. From twin studies, researchers know the inability to fall or stay asleep has a genetic component, but the identities of the …

NASA head says first person on Mars is ‘likely to be a woman’

By Christina Maxouris Forget everything you’ve learned about men and Mars. Chances are the first person to land on the red planet will be a woman, the head of NASA said recently. Jim Bridenstine was a guest on the science and technology radio show “Science Friday,” when he teased that a woman is “likely to …

Religious unaffiliation is growing in the U.S. Why isn’t it in Congress?

By Bart Worden (RNS) — This fall, voters in the Midwest elected two Muslim women to the U.S. House of Representatives, the first female members of their faith to enter Congress. The same day, Arizona elected Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who, while not the first of her kind, is even rarer: Sinema is the only person …

Humanist Weddings Are Less Likely to End in Divorce

By Hemant Mehta People who had Humanist wedding ceremonies have a lower rate of divorce compared to those who were married in a church. Humanists UK obtained the information from the Scottish government via a Freedom of Information request. The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service said that Humanist weddings, which have been legal in Scotland since 2005 and began overtaking …

Sound by the Pound: Surprising Discovery Hints Sonic Waves Carry Mass

By Jonathan O’Callaghan You might be forgiven for thinking our understanding of classical physics had reached its peak in the four centuries since Isaac Newton devised his eponymous laws of motion. But surprising new research shows there are still secrets waiting to be found, hidden in plain sight—or, at least in this case, within earshot. …