ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 227

Here Are the Worst Abortion Restrictions Conservative State Lawmakers Passed This Year

By Brie Shea Conservative state lawmakers passed a surge of unconstitutional pre-viability abortion bans this year in an effort to tee up a challenge to Roe v. Wade. These included everything from bans on the safest, most common form of second-trimester abortion to laws that would outright re-criminalize abortion. So far, the federal courts have proven to …

Half of Southerners believe the US was founded as ‘explicitly Christian,’ new poll finds

By Rickey Ciapha Dennis, Jr. Half of residents in 11 Southern states believe that America was founded as an explicitly Christian nation, a recent Winthrop University poll found. The view is a crux of Christian Nationalism, said poll director Scott Huffman. Those who espouse Christian Nationalist beliefs support the idea that the United States should …

Surprising Changes Will Affect Biodiversity in 2019

By Mary Hoff and Kaitlyn Kubat From Ensia (find the original story here); reprinted with permission. More than two dozen futurists, environmental scientists and others from around the world recently put their heads together to do a “horizon scan”of emerging trends that are getting relatively little attention but have the potential to have substantial impact on biodiversity conservation in …

NASA’s New Horizons Probe Prepares To Make History—Again

By Robbie Gonzalez Way, way out at the cold, dark edges of the solar system—past the rocky inner planets, beyond the gas giants, a billion miles more remote than Pluto—drifts a tiny frozen world so mysterious, scientists still aren’t entirely sure if it’s one world or two. Astronomers call it Ultima Thule, an old cartography term meaning “beyond the …

Arizona GOP Legislators File Overreaching Bills to Stifle Classroom Discussions

By Hemant Mehta Two new bills filed by Arizona legislators could stifle free speech in the classroom and prevent teachers from having honest, open, interesting discussions about some of the most important topics they face. House Bill 2002, filed by Republican State Rep. Mark Finchem, would prohibit public school teachers from “engaging in political ideological or religious advocacy …

‘Heartbeat’ Bans: How We Got Here, and Where We’re Headed

By Imani Gandy and Brie Shea On December 21, Ohio Gov. John Kasich vetoed the legislature’s attempt to become the fourth state to pass a law that bans abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat can be detected. But that doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods—it wasn’t the state’s first try at passing such an …

Cross case offers Supreme Court chance to clarify religious expression

By Kristen Waggoner Today, it seems like Americans can agree on only one thing: Our country is divided. Worse, we are divided in our approach to our nation’s bedrock principles — including freedom of religion. We are divided today not over merely which religions are acceptable but whether any religious reference is acceptable in the …

The Real-Life Effects of Trump’s Environmental Rollbacks: 5 Takeaways From Our Investigation

By Eric Lipton, Steve Eder, and John Branch For nearly two years, President Trump has pursued an aggressive, far-reaching effort, lobbied for and cheered on by industry, to free American business from what he and many of his supporters view as excessive environmental regulation. The consequences are starting to play out in noticeable ways in …

Apollo Astronaut Says It Would Be ‘Stupid’ to Send People to Mars

By Dan Robitzski According to one of the astronauts aboard NASA’s 1968 Apollo 8 mission, it would be “stupid” and “almost ridiculous” to pursue a crewed mission to Mars. “What’s the imperative? What’s pushing us to go to Mars? I don’t think the public is that interested,” said Bill Anders, who orbited the Moon before …

Appeals Court Won’t Rehear Case About Preachy School Board in Chino Valley (CA)

By Hemant Mehta In a welcome decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the judges rejected re-hearing a case in which the Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Directors (in California) was accused of violating the Establishment Clause by promoting Christianity at meetings. Back in July, a three-judge panel unanimously ruled against the District. Yesterday’s decision reaffirmed that …