ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 214

Oklahoma Lawmaker Wants to Push Christian Revisionist History in Public Schools

By Andrew Seidel Christian nationalists are always looking for ways to use our public schools to promote their warped, revisionist version of U.S. history. Myths like Christianity and the Bible playing a central role at the Constitutional Convention (nope, and it didn’t include a formal prayer either), like George Washington praying in the snow at Valley Forge …

Defrocked cardinal McCarrick will remain in church housing for now

By Julie Zauzmer When Theodore McCarrick was defrocked on Saturday, becoming the first cardinal ever removed from the priesthood because of sexual abuse, he lost his right to the support he has received his entire adult life: housing and income provided by the Catholic Church. But McCarrick, who is 88 and has been living in …

Vatican’s Secret Rules for Catholic Priests Who Have Children

By Jason Horowitz and Elisabetta Povoledo ROME — Vincent Doyle, a psychotherapist in Ireland, was 28 when he learned from his mother that the Roman Catholic priest he had always known as his godfather was in truth his biological father. The discovery led him to create a global support group to help other children of …

Faith-healing follower sentenced for not reporting sex abuse

By the Associated Press NAMPA, Idaho — An Idaho woman who refused to report her husband’s yearslong sexual abuse of young relatives and instead prayed for “the demon” to leave him was ordered Thursday to spend a year in a prison treatment program. Judge Christopher Nye said that if Sarah Kester, 51, fails to successfully …

Trump Official’s Anti-Vaxxer Wife Wants to “Bring Back” Childhood Diseases

By David G. McAfee An anti-vaxxer who’s married to a top White House official said she wants to “bring back our childhood diseases,” like the measles. Darla Shine is the wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Bill Shine (a former FOX News executive). She was apparently responding to a CNN report on the measles …

In Iowa, Religious Student Groups Get a License to Discriminate Against LGBTQ People

By Lisa Needham A federal district court in Iowa ruled last week in favor of a religious student group that openly rejects LGBTQ individuals—a victory in the ongoing conservative battle to give religious organizations license to discriminate in the name of faith. The case stems from a conservative Christian student group at the University of Iowa that sought …

NASA wants to get to the moon ‘as fast as possible.’ But countries like China and India are racing there, too.

By Christian Davenport During the height of the Space Age, the United States and the Soviet Union bushwhacked a frantic path to the lunar surface, landing nearly 20 spacecraft softly on the moon between 1966 and 1976, including the six carrying NASA’s Apollo astronauts. But after the last of these missions, a robotic Soviet probe …

Human cells reprogrammed to create insulin

By Matthew Warren The destruction of a single kind of insulin-producing cell in the pancreas can lead to diabetes — but a study suggests that other cells could be modified to take its place and help to control blood sugar levels. The results raise hopes that ‘reprogrammed’ insulin-producing cells could be used as treatment for diabetes, …

Why Can’t NASA’s Curiosity Rover Rescue Opportunity?

By Rafi Letzter The Mars rover Opportunity has died, NASA announced yesterday (Feb. 13). A layer of dust likely coated its solar panels, preventing it from juicing itself up after a 2018 sky-blackening dust storm on the Red Planet. But why couldn’t NASA launch a rescue mission to get it working again? After all, Opportunity …

‘Tennessee Natural Marriage Defense Act’ seeks to strip gay marriage rights

By Gwen Aviles Nearly four years after the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage legal throughout the U.S., Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are attempting to turn back the clock with a bill aimed at banning gay marriage in the state. The “Tennessee Natural Marriage Defense Act,” which was first proposed in 2016, seeks to “defend natural …