ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 306

Washington governor signs ban on sexual-orientation conversion therapy

By Rachel La Corte

OLYMPIA — A measure banning licensed therapists from trying to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity was signed into law Wednesday by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

Inslee signed the bill joined by lawmakers and other LGBT supporters, including Democratic Sen. Marko Liias, the bill’s sponsor, and Chad Griffin, the president of the D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign.

Inslee called conversion therapy abuse, and said that “we are today prohibiting the abuse of our children.”

“We have always believed in civil rights in our state,” he said. “We believe in tolerance for all.”

The new law, which takes effect in June, will deem it “unprofessional conduct” for a licensed health-care provider to perform conversion therapy on a patient under the age of 18. Under the measure, if the provider violates the law, he or she faces sanctions ranging from fines to license revocation or suspension. The measure does not apply to nonlicensed counselors operating as part of a religious organization, religious denomination or church.

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‘Demonic’ Fish Glows in Eerie Photo

By Mindy Weisberger

It’s an unsettling image that seems more suited to a conversation about demonology than one about marine biology.

An armor-studded fish skeleton, its empty eye sockets fixed upon observers with a baleful stare, glows red under fluorescent light and against a black background, in a photo recently captured and shared on Twitter by Leo Smith, an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at The University of Kansas.

But the fish is no demon, and the image wasn’t crafted in Photoshop or using digital manipulation — the color, glow and spiky studs that line the fish’s bones are all normal features of an aquatic oddball called the Pacific spiny lumpsucker (Eumicrotremus orbis), Smith told Live Science.

Pacific spiny lumpsuckers — when they’re alive — are genuinely adorable. They’re small and rotund, bearing a distinct resemblance to a spiky, bug-eyed golf ball. The common name is an apt description of the tiny fish, calling attention to their Pacific Ocean habitat, their coat of bony lumps — known as tubercles — and a large sucker on their stomachs that helps them cling to rocks, according to the Aquarium of the Pacific.

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Study: Anti-Vaxxer Parents Aren’t Giving Their Autistic Kids the Shots They Need

By Hemant Mehta

We know that anti-vaccination hysteria has caused some parents to refuse shots for their children because they fear vaccinations somehow cause autism. That link has never been established, but the misinformation is hard to contain and some celebrities continue using their platforms to spread doubts about the efficacy of vaccines.

I never realized how deep the damage went, though.

A new study published in JAMA Pediatrics finds that children already diagnosed with autism are less likely to get all the shots they need because their parents (wrongly) fear the first shots caused the autism, therefore they should avoid the remainder of them.

The researchers, which include representatives from Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, concluded that kids with autism as well as their non-autistic siblings may be at risk of not having the protection they need because their parents exhibit “vaccine hesitancy.”

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Louisiana schools could be required to display ‘In God We Trust’

BATON ROUGE (WWL-TV) — A bill unanimously advanced through the Senate Education Committee Thursday that would require each public school in Louisiana to display the national motto “In God We Trust.”

The bill, introduced by Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, would require each school district to display the national motto in each school by the 2019-20 school year.

Barrow said she was motivated to propose the legislation after Gov. John Bel Edwards’ prayer breakfast last week.

“We have an obligation to ensure students have that introduction because we cannot always assume that it’s necessarily happening at home,” she said.

Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, supports the bill and told the committee that a number of schools already display the motto. In Tangipahoa Parish, Mizell said, there is a school board member who made it her business to install “In God We Trust” throughout parish schools.

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Despite porn stars and Playboy models, white evangelicals aren’t rejecting Trump. This is why.

By Andrew L. Whitehead, Joseph O. Baker and Samuel L. Perry

A porn actress says she had sex with Donald Trump, only a few months after his wife gave birth to a son. A former Playboy model says she had an affair with him, too. And yet according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted March 7-14, both white mainline and evangelical Protestants continue to approve of Trump as president at higher levels than other religious groups.

Why are white Christians sticking so closely to President Trump, despite these claims of sexual indiscretions? And why are religious individuals and groups that previously decried sexual impropriety among political leaders suddenly willing to give Trump a “mulligan” on his infidelity?

Our new study points to a different answer than others have offered. Voters’ religious tenets aren’t what is behind Trump support; rather, it’s Christian nationalism — their view of the United States as a fundamentally Christian nation.

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Wave of Climate Migration Looms, but It “Doesn’t Have to Be a Crisis”

By Andrea Thompson

As the sea creeps steadily inland in countries such as Bangladesh, and as dwindling rains put already marginal farmland out of play in Ethiopia and other places, a wave of migration triggered by a changing climate is taking shape on the horizon.

But most “climate migrants” will not be heading abroad to start new lives; instead they will settle elsewhere in their home countries. A new World Bank report released this week declares that if nothing is done to curb global warming and factor migration into development planning, by mid-century this internal population shift could involve more than 140 million people in three regions examined: sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia and Latin America. “Climate change is already a driver of internal migration, and it will become more so in the future,” says John Roome, senior director for climate change at The World Bank Group.

The potential for such a surge in areas comprising 55 percent of the developing world’s population raises questions of environmental justice because those who have contributed least to global warming are forced to shoulder most of the burden. It is incumbent on developed countries like the U.S. to step up, says María Cristina García, a professor of American Studies at Cornell University who was not involved in the report. Developed countries can help by both working to limit greenhouse gas emissions and funding efforts to help developing nations plan for climate migration challenges, García says.

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Why is an infamous climate denier speaking at a Miami Beach climate change workshop?

By Alex Harris

James Taylor — no, not the singer — is the man to call when you want an official-sounding, educated voice on why climate change isn’t happening (it is), why humans haven’t caused it (we have) or why it’s actually good for the planet (it isn’t).

It’s all but impossible to find a reputable climate scientist that agrees with Taylor but his views are popular with the fossil fuel industry and climate-change deniers. He’s a senior fellow with the Heartland Institute, which is notorious for a series of 2012 billboards in Chicago with the phrase “I still believe in Global Warming. Do you?” alongside pictures of The Unabomber, Fidel Castro and Osama bin Laden. Heartland was at one point funded by oil and gas giants, including Exxon Mobil.

So why is he speaking in Miami Beach next week at a workshop to teach journalists and editors about covering climate change?

“It’s like having a debate on gun control and not inviting the NRA,” said Alejandro Alvarado, an associate professor at Florida International University and co-organizer of the event. “The key word here is workshop. This is not a science forum. It is a workshop.”

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Richard Dawkins to give away copies of The God Delusion in Islamic countries

By Alison Flood

Richard Dawkins is responding to what he called the “stirring towards atheism” in some Islamic countries with a programme to make free downloads of his books available in Arabic, Urdu, Farsi and Indonesian.

The scientist and atheist said he was “greatly encouraged” to learn that the unofficial Arabic pdf of the book had been downloaded 13m times. Dawkins writes in The God Delusion about his wish that the “open-minded people” who read it will “break free of the vice of religion altogether”. It has sold 3.3m copies worldwide since it was published in 2006 – far fewer than the number of Arabic copies that Dawkins believes to have been downloaded illegally.

The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science recently merged with the Washington DC-based Center for Inquiry. Dawkins said the CFI decided on “a more systematic programme” of translating his work in ebook form following “stirrings toward atheism in Iran and other Islamic countries”. It will be the first time his work has been made available in Arabic, Urdu, Farsi and other languages of Islamic countries.

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Christian leaders say they aren’t fazed by atheists’ metro gathering

By Carla Hinton

Holy Week and Easter Sunday in the Oklahoma City metro area will not be tarnished by a national gathering of atheists, several Christian leaders said recently.

“We ought not to be threatened by people who don’t believe,” said the Rev. A. Byron Coleman, senior pastor of Fifth Street Missionary Baptist Church, 801 NE 5.

“It doesn’t reshape the narrative of the Christian Church to have an atheist convention coming to town. We’re still going to have Resurrection Sunday and we’re still going to eat ham after church.”

The Rev. Randy Faulkner, senior pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church, 7201 W Britton Road, shared a similar view.

“Their presence in our city will not in any way diminish our joy in celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus,” he said.

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Mike Pence & a hate group leader are behind Trump’s new trans military ban

By Alex Bollinger

Multiple sources are saying that Mike Pence – along with some anti-LGBTQ activists – wrote the report behind Donald Trump‘s new transgender military ban.

The White House released a plan on Friday night to purge transgender people from the military, which revoked the previous transgender military ban that was announced last year.

Accompanying the new plan was a memo signed by Defense Secretary James Mattis and a report from the Department of Defense.

Multiple sources told Slate that Mike Pence “played a leading role in the creation of this report,” along with anti-transgender activists Ryan Anderson and Tony Perkins.

Anderson works at the right wing Heritage Foundation and recently wrote When Harry Became Sally, a book that claims that being transgender is a mental illness based on the narratives of “ex-transgender” people. Perkins works for the Family Research Council, an SPLC designated hate group.

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