ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 255

Brooklyn diocese reaches record $27.5M settlement with four victims of abuse by lay educator

By Alex Johnson

The New York Diocese of Brooklyn and a co-defendant have reached a $27.5 million settlement with four men who were sexually abused as boys by a lay church education director, the diocese said Tuesday night.

Each of the young men will receive $6.875 million from the diocese and an affiliated after-school program under terms of the settlement, said Ben Rubinowitz and Peter Saghir, the attorneys for the young men, who have remained anonymous.

In terms of individual payouts, it is the largest settlement on record involving abuse of minors by Roman Catholic Church figures, almost double the amount received by two victims in Rockville Centre, New York, in 2008, according to records maintained by Bishop Accountability, a nonprofit that monitors abuse allegations against Catholic priests and officials.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Alabama’s Dinosaur Adventure Land teaches that evolution is ‘dumbest religion in the history of the world’

By Anna Claire Vollers

Thunder rumbled overhead, immediately drowned out by the growl of a four-wheeler crashing through the Alabama backwoods. Kent Hovind roared into view atop an ATV, taking the rutted dirt path down the hill and cruising to a stop in front of the welcome center.

He grinned and hopped off.

“We have constant chaos here,” he announced. “I’ll tell you the whole story.”

His yellow safari shirt bore a Dinosaur Adventure Land patch (motto: “Where God gets glory for His creation”) similar to the logo on the welcome center behind him. His life’s work is to prove the Bible is true and scientifically accurate, and that evolution is “the dumbest religion in the history of the world.”

The 65-year-old Baptist preacher and YouTube star is new to Alabama.

He’ll tell you, more than once, that he spent 15 years teaching high school math and science. He doesn’t mind admitting he spent nine years in federal prison, though he disputes the charges, which included structuring bank withdrawals and failing to file tax returns.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Survey Finds Pope Francis’ Popularity Plunging After Most Recent Abuse Scandals

By Hemant Mehta

Here’s some good news: Even Pope Francis, the recipient of all kinds of undeserved positive press, has seen his popularity plummet in the wake of the latest round of Catholic Church child sex abuse revelations.

Gallup notes that only 53% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the pope, down from 76% at his peak in early 2014, and in a virtual tie with the 52% rating he had when first elected to the position and no one knew much about him.

Among Catholics, however, his reputation hasn’t really wavered. It’s at 79% which represents something of a midpoint for him as far as his followers go. (The number has wavered between 71% and 89% over the years.)

Among non-Catholics, his favorability is at an all-time low of 45%.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Christian Pol, Attacked for Opposing ‘In God We Trust’ in School, Talks Church and State

By Frederick Clarkson

In his first State of the Union address, Donald Trump wagged his finger and declared, “the motto is In God We Trust.” He was, of course, talking about the national motto, designated by Congress in the 1950s as part of the post-war culture of anti-communism. It replaced the original motto E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one) which spoke to the spirit of unifying the diverse nation of the founding era.) Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) told CBN News that he “was moved by the president’s commitment to God.”

The disingenuousness of these and allied pols has set the tone for much that has happened since. And there are indications that this may become more the rule than the exception. If so, the experience and example of State Senator John Marty (D-MN) may be instructive.

Marty was smeared on Fox News after he opposed a legislative amendment that would allow for the display of In God We Trust in the public schools. The bill’s sponsor, Republican Senator Dan Hall, described Marty as part of an “anti-faith movement” that seeks to “suppress” religion and “wipe it out of government.” Hall went on to say it was a matter of “religious freedom” to post In God We Trust in the schools.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

A Mysterious Pulsar Is Sending Strange Emissions Really Far Into Space

By Michelle Starr

Most stars are just out there in space, doing their star thing, but not the pulsar called RX J0806.4-4123. It’s been caught doing something that’s never been seen before. It’s emitting infrared radiation – and only infrared radiation – at a huge distance.

Long-distance emission from neutron stars is nothing new. But the fact RX J0806.4-4123 is the first star which has such an emission only in infrared light could mean that it could have new features seen in no other pulsar.

“This particular neutron star belongs to a group of seven nearby X-ray pulsars – nicknamed ‘the Magnificent Seven’ – that are hotter than they ought to be considering their ages and available energy reservoir provided by the loss of rotation energy,” said astrophysicist Bettina Posselt of Penn State.

“We observed an extended area of infrared emissions around this neutron star … the total size of which translates into about 200 astronomical units (or 2.5 times the orbit of Pluto around the Sun) at the assumed distance of the pulsar.”

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Betsy DeVos wants to allow schools to discriminate against LGBTQ students in secret

By John Gallagher

While the president’s tweets get all the attention, the damage being done by his minion’s policy changes often escape notice. In the latest example, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos wants to make it easy for Christian schools to discriminate against LGBTQ students without having to reveal their bias to the government.

At issue are regulations under Title IX, the federal law that prevents discrimination on the basis of gender. Advocates, including Department of Education employees, have been concerned from early in DeVos’s tenure that watering down that protection will have an outsized impact on LGBTQ students.

In the past, schools have been able to opt out of complying with the law if they cite a religious exemption. However, the Obama administration required the schools to submit a letter explaining their request for an exemption. The list of schools was then published online. 

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Trump’s Spiritual Adviser Urged a Church Congregation to Vote Republican

By Hemant Mehta

During a service last week at Kenneth Copeland‘s Eagle Mountain International Church, evangelist Paula White (a spiritual adviser to Donald Trump) and Copeland’s daughter Terri Pearsons told the crowd in no uncertain terms that they needed to vote Republican this November.

It was a complete violation of the Johnson Amendment which, contrary to what Pearsons said, has not yet been invalidated.

“There is so much at stake in this,” Pearsons responded, hammering home the point that Trump’s judicial appointments are “probably the single biggest, most critical issue” in the upcoming elections. “That’s what your vote means, so we’re going to vote for the team that will most press that agenda through because it’s the judges that have brought so much of the ungodliness into our nation.”

“You see the hand of God in all this,” White chimed in, falsely claiming that California has already passed a law “that says the Bible is a book of hate speech and to ban the sale of it.”

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

The Future of Fish Farming May Be Indoors

By Laura Poppick

On a projection screen in front of a packed room in a coastal Maine town, computer-animated salmon swim energetically through a massive oval tank. A narrator’s voice soothingly points out water currents that promote fish exercise and ideal meat texture, along with vertical mesh screens that “optimize fish densities and tank volume.” The screens also make dead fish easy to remove, the narrator cheerily adds.

The video is part of a pitch made earlier this year for an ambitious $500-million salmon farm that Norway-based firm, Nordic Aquafarms, plans to build in Belfast, Maine, complete with what Nordic says will be among the world’s largest aquaculture tanks. It is one of a handful of projects in the works by companies hoping these highly mechanized systems will change the face fish farming—by moving it indoors.

If it catches on, indoor aquaculture could play a critical role in meeting the needs of a swelling human population, Nordic CEO Erik Heim says. He believes it could do so without the pollution and other potential threats to wild fish that can accompany traditional aquaculture—although the indoor approach does face environmental challenges of its own.“There’s always some risk, but the risk of the land-based system is a small percentage of the risk of an outdoor system,” says Michael Timmons, an environmental engineer at Cornell University who has studied aquaculture for more than 20 years and is not involved in the Nordic project.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Huge genetic-screening effort helps pinpoint roots of breast cancer

By Heidi Ledford

A massive study of nearly 4,000 variants in a gene associated with cancer could help to pinpoint people at risk for breast or ovarian tumours.

The information is sorely needed: millions of people have had their BRCA1 gene sequenced. Some variations in the DNA sequence of BRCA1 are linked to breast and ovarian cancer; others are thought to be safe. But the effects of most variants are unknown, leaving patients and physicians alike at a loss to interpret the results.

The study, published on 12 September in Nature1, examined the effects of thousands of such variants on the survival of cells grown in the laboratory. The findings could help physicians to interpret the mutations’ significance. For example, a variant that hampers a cell’s ability to repair DNA in the lab might also be linked to cancer in the clinic.

“Every patient is different. Every physician is different,” says Jay Shendure, a geneticist at the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine in Seattle, Washington, and a co-author of the study. “But if such a variant were present in a family member of mine, would I use this information? Absolutely. Otherwise, there’s no information.”

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.

Texas board votes to eliminate Hillary Clinton, Helen Keller from history curriculum

By Lauren McGaughy

History curriculum in Texas remembers the Alamo but could soon forget Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller.

As part of an effort to “streamline” the social studies curriculum in public schools, the State Board of Education voted Friday to adjust what students in every grade are required to learn in the classroom. Among the changes, board members approved the removal of several historical figures, including Clinton and Keller, from the curriculum.

The board also voted to keep in the curriculum a reference to the “heroism” of the defenders of the Alamo, which had been recommended for elimination, as well as Moses’ influence on the writing of the nation’s founding documents, multiple references to “Judeo-Christian” values and a requirement that students explain how the “Arab rejection of the State of Israel has led to ongoing conflict” in the Middle East.

The vote Friday was preliminary. The board can amend the curriculum changes further before taking a final vote in November.

Barbara Cargill, a Republican board member from Houston and former chairwoman, said work groups recommended removing Clinton and Keller, and the board agreed.

Continue reading by clicking the name of the source below.