ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 41

How Andrea Ghez Won the Nobel for an Experiment Nobody Thought Would Work

By Hilton Lewis Standing in my office 25 years ago was an unknown, newly minted astronomer with a half-smile on her face. She had come with an outrageous request—really a demand—that my team modify our exhaustively tested software to make one of our most important and in-demand scientific instruments do something it had never been …

Orthodox Groups, Catholic Diocese Sue Cuomo Over New Religious Restrictions In Virus Hotspots

By Elizabeth Kim A group of Jewish organizations and the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn are separately suing Governor Andrew Cuomo to stop the state from enforcing attendance limits on house of worship in parts of New York that have been designated for new restrictions due to rising coronavirus cases. The lawsuits mark an expected and …

How Christian nationalism may determine whether you wear a mask

By Jack Jenkins The divisions that the coronavirus pandemic has caused in the United States — with some viewing social distancing restrictions as sensible and altruistic while others decry them as infringements on our freedoms — have been blamed on everything from political parties to toxic masculinity. But a group of academics say there may be …

Pay Attention, Democrats: Research Shows Secular Americans Are a Voting Bloc

By Dr. Juhem Navarro-Rivera For more than a decade, I have been chronicling the growth of the secular population, focusing my research particularly on their political behavior. We know that most secular voters in the U.S. vote for Democratic Party presidential candidates. We also know that secular people’s policy preferences and ideological views are to the left of the …

Lawsuit: CA Pastor Molested Stepdaughter for Years, Starting When She Was 11

By Hemant Mehta Just like New York, the state of California last year lengthened the statute of limitations when it comes to sexual abuse. Before the law was passed, if you were molested as a child but only came to terms with the effects of that much later in life, there wasn’t much you could do about …

Why is it so hard for atheists to get voted in to Congress?

By Phil Zuckerman Every election cycle has its “firsts.” This year, the selection of Kamala Harris as Joe Biden’s running mate presented the U.S. with its first politician of Indian heritage – and the first Black woman – to be on a major party ticket. It followed Hillary Clinton’s becoming the first woman to win the popular vote for president in …

‘Superhabitable’ planets could be better for life than Earth

By Ashley Strickland Earth is the only planet we know of so far to host life, but it may not be the best place for life when compared with “superhabitable” planets, according to a new study. And as scientists search for other planets outside of our solar system, called exoplanets, that could host life, planets …

Supreme Court hears religious freedom challenge over suing FBI agents

By Ariane de Vogue The Supreme Court returned to the controversial issue of religious freedom on Tuesday in a case concerning three Muslim men who are seeking to sue FBI special agents for damages under a federal law meant to protect religious liberty. The dispute began seven years ago when, said Muhammad Tanzir, Jameel Algibhah and …

Megalodon’s hugeness was ‘off-the-scale’ — even for a shark

By Mindy Weisberger Megalodon was the most massive shark that ever lived, and its gargantuan girth was highly unusual even among sharks, scientists recently discovered. In fact, Megalodon’s gigantism — it’s estimated to have measured up to 50 feet (15 meters) in length, about as long as a bowling lane — was “off-the-scale,” researchers wrote in …

Arrests and torture of gays, lesbians in Egypt are ‘systematic,’ rights report says

By Sudarsan Raghavan The Egyptian government continues to target gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in a “systematic fashion” through arbitrary arrests, torture and other forms of abuse, including forced “virginity tests,” Human Rights Watch said Thursday. The watchdog group accused police personnel and officers of Egypt’s National Security Agency of routinely picking up suspected LGBT …