ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 414

A Crack in an Antarctic Ice Shelf Grew 17 Miles in the Last Two Months

By Jugal K. Patel

A rapidly advancing crack in Antarctica’s fourth-largest ice shelf has scientists concerned that it is getting close to a full break. The rift has accelerated this year in an area already vulnerable to warming temperatures. Since December, the crack has grown by the length of about five football fields each day.

The crack in Larsen C now reaches over 100 miles in length, and some parts of it are as wide as two miles. The tip of the rift is currently only about 20 miles from reaching the other end of the ice shelf.

Once the crack reaches all the way across the ice shelf, the break will create one of the largest icebergs ever recorded, according to Project Midas, a research team that has been monitoring the rift since 2014. Because of the amount of stress the crack is placing on the remaining 20 miles of the shelf, the team expects the break soon.

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Humanist celebrants seek same status as ministers

By Danae King

It might seem like any other wedding — vows, an aisle, a dress, love in the air.

Sometimes, guests even come up to August Brunsman IV and tell him what a lovely ceremony it was, saying, “Thank you, minister.”

But he’s not a minister. He’s a humanist celebrant. And though humanism is considered a religion, its members don’t believe in a god or the supernatural and their wedding ceremonies usually don’t mention God.

The designation as a religion, however, makes all the difference in Brunsman being able to perform marriage ceremonies legally. Without that designation, something many secularists and atheists balk at, he wouldn’t have any power “vested” in him by the state of Ohio.

That’s something several groups are fighting. They say anyone, regardless of religious beliefs, should be able to perform marriage ceremonies.

The way Monette Richards sees it, changing the law would be a win for all involved.

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These Conservative Christians Are Opposed to Trump—and Suffering the Consequences

By Emma Green

Earlier this month, Jonathan Martin jotted off a sad tweet. “I’ve lost count of the number of people who say they’ve had ministry jobs threatened/been fired for speaking out in some way in this season,” the Christian author and speaker wrote. Confirmation rolled in: one story from a church planter in California, another from a former worship leader in Indiana. These are “not people who would historically self-identify as progressives, at all,” Martin told me later. They’re “people who see themselves as being very faithful evangelicals.”

Donald Trump has divided conservative Christian communities. Most white Christians support Trump, or at least voted for him. Some who have spoken out against his presidency or his policies, though, have encountered backlash. For a small group of people working in Christian ministry, music, and nonprofit advocacy, the consequences have been tangible: They’ve faced pressure from their employers, seen funds withdrawn from their mission work, or lost performing gigs because of their political beliefs.

Many of these stories suggest a generational divide in the church. Young Christians who describe themselves as theological conservatives don’t necessarily identify as political conservatives, although some who do are also horrified by Trump. The issues they’re passionate about—whether it’s racial reconciliation or refugee care—might not match the priorities of their elders. And the pushback often comes online: Posts on Facebook, Twitter, or personal blogs might prompt a text from the boss or an outraged message from a church friend. For Millennials used to speaking their minds on social media, institutional rules curtailing their freedom—whether they’re standard policies or not—might be jarring.

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Atheists Are Oppressed in America

By James Croft

A friend recently posted a question on Facebook which sparked much discussion: are atheists oppressed in the USA? I was not surprised by the troll responses from Christians ranting about how they are the most oppressed group in the States, but I was a little surprised that a number of atheists themselves seemed quite invested in the idea that atheists do not experience oppression in America. The thread suggested a need for the question to be tackled in a systematic way, because there were so many different definitions of “oppression” floating around, and because some of the arguments seemed pretty confused. So here’s an attempt to justify the claim that a structure of oppression exists in the USA which targets and harms atheists.

What is oppression?

Dictionary definitions, as ever, are next to useless in complex discussions which involve terms which have disparate common and academic meanings. They are too thin, capturing only how words are used in everyday parlance and not the full concept as understood by those who have considered it most deeply. Better to look to the academy, where the most useful definitions of oppression are ones which recognize that society is permeated by a matrix of power relationships which privilege some identities and underprivilege others, leading to hierarchies of good and bad, powerful and powerless, based on one’s membership in various categories of class, race, gender, sexuality, religion etc.

Consider this definition from Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice: A Sourcebook, Adams, Bell, and Griffin, eds.:

“Oppression: The systemic and pervasive nature of social inequality woven throughout social institutions as well as embedded within individual consciousness. Oppression fuses institutional and systemic discrimination, personal bias, bigotry, and social prejudice in a complex web of relationships and structures that saturate most aspects of life in our society.

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Marine Ecosystems Are Preparing for Climate Change

By Kavya Balaraman

Coral reefs, kelp forests and other marine ecosystems may be tougher than we give them credit for, a new study suggests.

While countless scientific reports have documented the ravages of climate change on oceanic life, a survey of the researchers who wrote them provides a silver lining: An overwhelming majority noticed examples of sea life withstanding climate change.

“There are instances where sensitive ecosystems have shown remarkable resilience after climatic events. You can think of them as ‘bright spots’: They demonstrate that there are conditions under which ecosystems can persist even with major climate disturbances,” said Jennifer O’Leary, a marine conservation biologist with California Polytechnic State University and leader of the study.

The results of the survey were compiled in a report published in the journal BioScience. In all, 97 researchers were polled; 80 percent of those who had witnessed climatic disturbances also reported noting instances of resilience. A similar survey that looked at expert-recommended papers on ecosystems found examples of resilience in 85 percent of them.

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Found: Guts of 470-Million-Year-Old Sea Creature

By Michelle Z. Donahue

In a rare find, scientists have examined guts, legs, and gills from an animal that was preserved for nearly 500 million years. The ancient soft parts are offering new insights into the behavior of trilobites, the insect-like creatures that ruled Earth’s early seas for hundreds of millions of years.

Paleontologists have identified more than 20,000 species of trilobite, but little is known about exactly how the animals moved around or what and how they ate. That’s because the soft tissues of the undercarriage are usually long gone by the time the harder exoskeletons mineralize into the distinctive alien-looking fossils.

Now, Diego García-Bellido and Juan Carlos Gutiérrez-Marco have gotten a good look at three specimens of a 478-million-year-old trilobite from Morocco known as Megistaspis hammondi, donated by a private collector. They describe the fossils in a paper published in January in Scientific Reports.

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Congressman is righteously booed after dodging a young girl’s simple question about science

By Sean O’Kane

One hour into a loud, contentious town hall meeting in his home state of Utah, Congressman Jason Chaffetz was asked two simple questions by a young girl named Hannah Bradshaw. The first was about the environment: “What are you doing to help protect our water and air for our generations and my kids’ generations?” The second was just a bit more broad: “Do you believe in science?”

Asking the sitting congressman if he believes in science is sadly a relevant question. Chaffetz has called global warming “a farce,” and just this week co-sponsored a bill to abolish the Department of Education. He also recently proposed a bill that would have transferred ownership of federal public lands to the states, making them easier to sell. (He swiftly withdrew that bill after it sparked public outrage.)

So it’s not surprising that, instead of saying anything remotely resembling the words “I believe in science,” Chaffetz deflected hard enough to cause whiplash. Luckily, the crowd wasn’t having it. One woman in particular can be heard loudly repeating the words “ANSWER THE QUESTION,” and so Chaffetz was goaded into responding to Bradshaw.

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For Religious Conservatives, Success and Access at the Trump White House

By Jeremy W. Peters

WASHINGTON — The people who filled the pews of St. John’s Episcopal Church for a private service on the morning of the inauguration were a testament to the ascendancy of the religious right in Donald J. Trump’s Washington: James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family; Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council; James Robison, the Christian television preacher.

Right after Mr. Dobson blessed Mike Pence, and just before the congregation sang “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” Mr. Robison took to the pulpit and asked Mr. Trump to rise.

For six minutes, the president-elect stood as Mr. Robison heaped praise on him, extolling his ability to inspire a crowd, his choice of the deeply religious Mr. Pence as a running mate and his wisdom in selecting a White House team that he deemed “the greatest cabinet I’ve ever seen.”

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Do’s and don’ts for scientists who want to shape policy

By Eric Stokstad

Paul Cairney, a political scientist at the University of Stirling in the United Kingdom, has a message for those who want facts and research findings to guide policy. “‘Evidence based policy making’ is a good political slogan, but not a good description of the policy process,” he writes on his blog, which has become a popular read for policy wonks. “If you expect to see it, you will be disappointed.” It’s a typically frank assessment from Cairney, who last year published a well-received book entitled The Politics of Evidence-Based Policy Making. But his goal isn’t to discourage efforts to inject evidence into statecraft; rather, he aims to arm scientists with some practical advice about the policymaking world that might help them do better. In a recent interview, Cairney offered some do’s and don’ts for getting involved.

Beware feeling left out.

Events like the election of fact-averse President Donald Trump can leave scientists feeling “that science has lost and feelings have won,” Cairney says. But many, if not most, government policies are developed by specialists, deep inside offices and departments experienced in policymaking. “That’s where scientists tend to have an easier ride and more of a place in the discussion.” And in some specialty arenas, such as analyzing drug risks or highway safety, “the scientific way of thinking” often dominates.

Don’t think the evidence speaks for itself.

“Well, it never does,” he says. “Don’t assume anyone cares.” Moreover, policymakers are already swimming in white papers, reports, and studies. A common refrain, Cairney says, is “I don’t have the time to consider all the information. How do I decide?” In that situation, scientists can play an important role as sifters, synthesizers, and analyzers.

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Oklahoma Republicans Advance Bill To Put Ten Commandments Displays in Public Schools

By Hemant Mehta

What is it with Oklahoma legislators and their obsession with the Ten Commandments?

After a years-long battle — which they lost — over a monument outside the Capitol building, State Rep. John Bennett has now proposed House Bill 2177, which would allow the posting of the Commandments in all public buildings including courthouses and public schools.

While the bill talks broadly about posting “historically significant documents,” there’s no doubt that’s just a cover for the Decalogue.

In presenting the bill… Bennett made it clear his primary interest is the Ten Commandments, saying they have “impacted American law and culture with a force similar only to that of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.”

I’m not sure how rules about worshiping only one specific God, false idols, keeping the Sabbath Day holy, and taking the Lord’s name in vain have anything to do with our law… but maybe that’s because I’ve actually read the First Amendment. It’s also legal (even if it’s not ethical) to commit adultery, lie, and covet. So it’s just not true that we based our laws on the Ten Commandments.

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