ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 215

Virginia’s two Catholic bishops release names of 58 priests they say have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors

By Michelle Boorstein and Sarah Pulliam Bailey Virginia’s two Catholic dioceses on Wednesday released lists of clergy who officials say were deemed “credibly accused” of sexually abusing youth, the latest in a slew of U.S. dioceses to make public such names amid a national crisis over clerical abuse and coverups. The Diocese of Arlington, which …

Andromeda Is Coming for Our Milky Way Galaxy, Eventually

By Dennis Overbye The apocalypse has been postponed. Astronomers have long known that the Andromeda galaxy, a.k.a. Messier 31, a swirling city-state of a trillion stars — plus all the accouterments of gas, dust, dark matter and black holes — is rumbling through the cosmos right toward us at 68 miles per second. Five years …

Democratic House Chair Purposely Omits “So Help Me God” When Administering Oath

By Hemant Mehta When the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on gun violence Wednesday morning, Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the chair of the group, administered the oath to witnesses who were about the testify. When he did that, he left out the phrase “So help me God.” A Republican questioned him about that immediately afterward. Nadler chalked …

School cancels Darwin play after complaints from Christian parents

By Sophie Lewis An elementary school in Britain has canceled its performances of a musical on evolution after complaints from some Christian parents over some of its lyrics. About 90 students were preparing to perform “Darwin Rocks!,” a musical about Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution, next month at Hartford Manor Primary School — …

Trump lauds religious adoption agencies for refusing service to same-sex couples

By Zack Ford President Donald Trump openly endorsed discrimination by foster and adoption agencies, speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning. After welcoming Chad and Melissa Buck, a couple from Michigan who he applauded for having adopted five children, he said, “Unfortunately, the Michigan adoption charity that brought the Buck family together is now …

Day of Prayer bill passes Kentucky House Education Committee hearing

By Chris Williams FRANKFORT, Ky. (WHAS11) – A Day of Prayer in Kentucky schools bill, also known as House Bill 166, passed during a hearing held by the Kentucky House Education Committee on Feb. 12. This bill would designate the last Wednesday of September as A Day of Prayer for students in Kentucky. The bill’s sponsor …

How Many Creationists Are There in America?

By Cary Funk, Greg Smith, and David Masci More than a century and a half after Charles Darwin published his groundbreaking thesis on the development of life, evolution remains a contentious topic in the United States. Most biologists and other scientists contend that evolutionary theory convincingly explains the origins and development of life on Earth. …

Opportunity did not answer NASA’s final call, and it’s now gone to us

By Eric Berger Late Tuesday night, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory sent their final data uplink to the Opportunity rover on Mars. Over this connection, via the Deep Space Network, the American jazz singer Billie Holiday crooned “I’ll Be Seeing You,” a song which closes with the lines: I’ll find you in the morning sun And …

The Bizarre Planets That Could Be Humanity’s New Homes

By Charlie Jane Anders Imagine going to live on a planet where the sun never moves in the sky. No sunrise, no sunset. Several years ago, I became obsessed with tidally locked planets. The notion of a world permanently caught between two extremes—with one half always illuminated, the other always in the dark—took hold of …

Washington measles outbreak draws crowd to hearing on vaccine law

By Lena H. Sun and Kristen Millares Young OLYMPIA, Wash. — Anti-vaccine activists packed a public hearing Friday to oppose a bill that would make it harder for families to opt out of vaccination requirements for measles, mumps and rubella amid the state’s worst measles outbreak in more than two decades. An estimated 700 people, most of …