ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 49

Earth barreling toward ‘Hothouse’ state not seen in 50 million years, epic new climate record shows

By Brandon Specktor Editor’s Note: This story was updated on Sept. 11 to fix two Celsius and Fahrenheit conversions. Sixty-six million years ago, after a massive asteroid hit Earth with the explosive energy of roughly 1 billion nuclear bombs, a shroud of ash, dust and vaporized rock covered the sky and slowly rained down on the planet. As …

U.S. Teens Take After Their Parents Religiously, Attend Services Together and Enjoy Family Rituals

By the Pew Research Center When it comes to religion, American teenagers and their parents tend to have a lot in common – though not quite as much as the parents may think, according to a new analysis of Pew Research Center survey data. To begin with, most U.S. teens (ages 13 to 17) share …

Trump announces new Supreme Court justice options in apparent appeal to religious base

By Jack Jenkins President Donald Trump made what appeared to be a targeted appeal to his conservative religious base on Wednesday afternoon (Sept. 9), announcing a slate of potential Supreme Court candidates who he suggested would protect religious liberty, oppose abortion and keep “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Trump’s announcement was a hypothetical …

Trump’s overtures struggle to register with religious voters

By Gabby Orr He recently renewed his promise to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood. He drew bipartisan praise for brokering an agreement that’s expected to boost Israel’s influence in the Middle East. And he released an updated list of Supreme Court nominees on Wednesday. But so far, President Donald Trump’s overtures to religious voters …

Trump Admits Playing Down Coronavirus’s Severity, According To New Woodward Book

By Alana Wise President Trump is defending himself after interviews from a new book by legendary reporter Bob Woodward reveal that Trump acknowledged the deadliness of the coronavirus in early February and admitted in March to playing down its severity. “This is deadly stuff,” the president told Woodward in a Feb. 7 conversation, according to …

Huge cavities threaten glacier larger than Great Britain

By Jonathan Watts British scientists have mapped cavities half the size of the Grand Canyon that are allowing warm ocean water to erode the vast Thwaites glacier in the Antarctic, accelerating the rise of sea levels across the world. Like decay in a tooth, the channels of warm water are melting the ice from below, …

Queensland passes law to jail priests for not reporting confessions of child sexual abuse

By Allyson Horn Priests in Queensland will now be compelled to break the seal of confession to report child sexual abuse or face three years in jail. New laws passed through Queensland Parliament will force members of the clergy to report known or suspected cases of abuse to police. The legislation means religious institutions and …

Trump’s ex-lawyer Cohen links Falwell’s endorsement in 2016 to suppression of racy photos

By Aram Roston In his book released today, Michael Cohen, the former fixer for U.S. President Donald Trump, ties for the first time the 2016 presidential endorsement of Trump by American evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr to Cohen’s own role in helping to keep racy “personal” photographs of the Falwells from becoming public. As Reuters …

QAnon and Other Conspiracies

By Steven Novella I previously wrote that the flat Earth movement is the mother of all conspiracies – it essentially is the ultimate conspiracy in that, if you believe that the world is actually flat then you also have to believe that there has been a massive conspiracy involving millions of people all of the …

School prayer dispute: Greenville board splits, nixes legal settlement with humanist group

By Anne B. Mitchell The agreement on prayer at school graduations had everything Greenville County’s school district wanted. Students could lead prayers. Employees could bow their heads out of respect and utter a discreet “Amen” at the prayer’s conclusion. But when faced with also paying the bills for a seven-year legal battle that the American …