ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 218

Climate change will even change the color of the oceans, study says

By Jen Christensen The ocean will not look the same color in the future. It won’t turn pink or anything radically different; the change will be more apparent through optic sensors than though the human eye. But it serves as an early warning sign that global warming is significantly altering the planet’s ecosystems, according to …

Alabama senator prefiles bill to allow elective Bible classes in public schools

By Sean Ross Public school students in Alabama could soon be allowed to study the Bible as an official elective class offering. Senator Tim Melson (R-Florence) has prefiled legislation that would allow the Bible to be taught as an elective for grades six to twelve and require the State Board of Education to adopt rules and policies to …

Michigan’s Top Lawyer Just Pulled Out of Three Church/State Separation Lawsuits

By Hemant Mehta Elections have consequences, and Michigan will no longer be wasting time fighting right-wing battles now that there’s a progressive in the top legal office. Attorney General Dana Nessel announced yesterday that Michigan would be pulling out of eight lawsuits that her predecessor, Bill Schuette, pushed them into. Four of them involve challenges to reproductive freedom. One …

Giant Void Hidden Under Antarctica’s Ice Threatens Vast Glacier

By Laura Geggel There’s a giant void hiding under the Antarctic ice, and it’s growing larger and more menacing by the day, a new study using satellite data finds. The cavity is colossal, about two-thirds the area of Manhattan and nearly 1,000 feet (300 meters) tall. It’s growing at the bottom of Thwaites Glacier in …

Catholic Church in Texas Names Nearly 300 Priests Accused of Sex Abuse

By Liam Stack The Roman Catholic Church in Texas on Thursday released the names of almost 300 priests who it said had been credibly accused of child sex abuse over nearly eight decades. The action was the latest in a wave of disclosures by the church as it faces a series of federal and state …

A Former Pastor Of Trump’s Church Says He Never Saw Him There

By Sara Boboltz President Donald Trump gave Bible literacy legislation a shout-out on Monday with a tweet praising states that are “starting to make a turn back” to an unspecified time when public schools apparently relished in Bible study. As The Washington Post’s Mark Chancy noted, there was no such time in American history. And …

Here’s Why the Supreme Court Must Say the Bladensburg Cross Is Unconstitutional

By Hemant Mehta Next month, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in The American Legion v. American Humanist Association. The case involves the 40-foot-tall “Peace Cross” (a.k.a. the Bladensburg Cross), a World War I memorial in Prince George’s County, Maryland. While supporters of the cross say it’s a perfectly legal war memorial, the AHA argues …

Open Discussion – February 2019

This thread has been created for discussion on themes relevant to Reason and Science for which there are not currently any dedicated threads. Please note it is NOT for general chat, and that all Terms of Use apply as usual. If you would like to refer back to previous open discussion threads, the three most …

Scientists Single Out a Suspect in Starfish Carnage: Warming Oceans

By Kendra Pierre-Louis In 2013, starfish — including the morning sun star, the richly hued ochre star and the sunflower star, whose limbs can span four feet across — started dying by the millions along the Pacific Coast from Mexico to Alaska. They were succumbing to a wasting disease. It began with white lesions on their …

Neanderthals and Denisovans Shared a Siberian Cave for Thousands of Years, New Research Suggests

By George Dvorsky Denisova cave in southern Siberia was home to Neanderthals and Denisovans for thousands of years, but questions remain about the timing of their stay. A pair of new studies traces the history of archaic human occupation at the site, showing who lived there and when—including a possible era during which the two now-extinct …