ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 216

Supreme Court Conservatives Allow Execution of Muslim Prisoner Despite Religious Freedom Violation

By Andrew L. Seidel The five conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court were in such a rush to see Domineque Ray executed that they ignored the First Amendment. This is because the condemned prisoner was a Muslim, not a member of the favored religion: Christianity. Two weeks before his execution, Ray met with the warden, …

Scientists Are Totally Rethinking Animal Cognition

By Ross Andersen Amid the human crush of Old Delhi, on the edge of a medieval bazaar, a red structure with cages on its roof rises three stories above the labyrinth of neon-lit stalls and narrow alleyways, its top floor emblazoned with two words: birds hospital. On a hot day last spring, I removed my shoes at the …

Abuse of Faith

By Robert Downen, Lise Olsen, and John Tedesco First of three parts Thirty-five years later, Debbie Vasquez’s voice trembled as she described her trauma to a group of Southern Baptist leaders. She was 14, she said, when she was first molested by her pastor in Sanger, a tiny prairie town an hour north of Dallas. …

Something Is Not Quite Right In the Universe, Ultraprecise New Measurement Reveals

By Mara Johnson-Groh Something isn’t quite right in the universe. At least based on everything physicists know so far. Stars, galaxies, black holes and all the other celestial objects are hurtling away from each other ever faster over time. Past measurements in our local neighborhood of the universe find that the universe is exploding outward …

Supreme Court blocks Louisiana abortion law from taking effect

By Ariane de Vogue The Supreme Court Thursday blocked a Louisiana abortion access law from going into effect for now, dealing a victory to opponents of the law who argued it could decimate “safe and legal” abortions in the state. The order was 5-4 with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the court’s four liberals voting …

At National Prayer Breakfast, Trump Pledges, ‘I Will Never Let You Down’

By Tom Gjelten With his opening words at this year’s National Prayer Breakfast, President Trump made clear he saw the largely conservative crowd as a friendly audience, one he was eager to please. “I will never let you down,” he said. “I can say that. Never.” In his first appearance at the event in 2017, Trump …

Senators Can and Must Ask About Nominees’ Religious Beliefs

By Andrew L. Seidel The old rule tells us that politics and religion are not to be mentioned in polite conversation. In an effort to ease nomination hearings for some of President Trump’s more extreme nominees, conservatives—and at least one Democrat—are seeking to graft this rule of etiquette onto the Constitution. The new political attack is …

South Carolina Bill Would Inject “Creation Science” Into Public Schools

By Hemant Mehta Some state legislators try to push Creationism into science classrooms by using coded language. For example, they say they want schools to teach the “strengths and weaknesses” of various scientific ideas. But South Carolina Republican Reps. Dwight A. Loftis and James Mikell “Mike” Burns never got that memo. They’re the sponsors of House Bill 3826, …

Earth Once Swallowed Its Own Superocean. Could It Happen Again?

By Stephanie Pappas The ancient supercontinent of Rodinia turned inside out as the Earth swallowed its own ocean some 700 million years ago, new research suggests. Rodinia was a supercontinent that preceded the more famous Pangea, which existed between 320 million and 170 million years ago. In a new study, scientists led by Zheng-Xiang Li of …

Trump to the National Prayer Breakfast: “I will never let you down. I can say that. Never.”

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey and Julie Zauzmer Since his campaign, President Trump has taken a page from President Reagan’s playbook. “I know you can’t endorse me,” Reagan famously told a room full of evangelicals in 1980. “But . . . I want you to know that I endorse you.” Whenever he takes the stage in front of …