ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 54

One nation ‘under God’? More and more Americans don’t think so.

By Charles Lane In the United States, one of the most consequential cultural changes of our time may be the swift and seemingly accelerating decline of religious commitment. Historically, Americans have recorded relatively high levels of worship-service attendance and belief in God, as compared with their peers in advanced industrial societies such as Europe or …

Court docs: Kzoo pastor paid children for sex

By Susan Samples Court documents filed Tuesday show how police say a well-known pastor and his wife used their positions with Kalamazoo Public Schools and a Kalamazoo church to coerce and pay four teenage boys for sex. The probable cause document, submitted by Michigan State Police, lays out the 11 felony charges against Rev. Stricjavvar “Strick” …

The unequal scramble for coronavirus vaccines — by the numbers

By Ewen Callaway Wealthy countries have struck deals to buy more than two billion doses of coronavirus vaccine in a scramble that could leave limited supplies in the coming year. Meanwhile, an international effort to acquire vaccines for low- and middle-income countries is struggling to gain traction. Most experts say that late 2020 or early …

New Research Shows the Four Conditions That Lead to a Less Religious Society

By Hemant Mehta A couple of summers ago, I spent a wonderful week working with a group of policy experts, computer programmers, and sociologists and discussing what conditions would create communities with more thoughtful, charitable, and connected atheists. It wasn’t merely some long thought experiment. There was plenty of historical data available that allowed us to gauge …

‘Dangerous levels of contempt’: Trump deploys a convention to attack Dems on religion

By Gabby Orr He’s waved a Bible in front of a shuttered church. He’s pushed to reopen worship houses despite evidence of being coronavirus super spreaders. He’s shouted, tweeted and whispered at every level that he’d support the aims of religious conservatives. And now President Donald Trump is using the 2020 Republican convention stage to …

Jerry Falwell Jr. resigns as Liberty University president after accusations that he participated in a partner’s affair with his wife

By Erik Ortiz Liberty University’s board of trustees on Tuesday accepted the resignation of President Jerry Falwell Jr., following a daylong back-and-forth over the fate of the longtime evangelical Christian leader who spent 13 turbulent years at the school’s helm. Falwell, whom the board had placed on an indefinite leave of absence Aug. 7 after a series …

A supernova may have triggered a mass extinction on Earth 359 million years ago

By Mindy Weisberger A global extinction event around 359 million years ago may have been triggered by the death blast of a distant star, a new study suggests. Toward the end of the Devonian period (416 million to 358 million years ago), there was a mass extinction known as the Hangenberg Event; it wiped out armored fish …

Atheist Group Releases Scorecard for U.S. House; Many Members Earned Top Scores

By Hemant Mehta The Center for Freethought Equality (the advocacy wing of the American Humanist Association) has publicly released its scorecard for the 116th Congress, grading House members for how they voted on a variety of resolutions and bills dealing with issues like church/state separation, blasphemy laws, faith-based discrimination, science, and more. (They shared the list with members earlier this month.) You …

Jim Bakker gets PPP loans to pay employees, despite Morningside’s legal fight on fraud claims

By Sally Stapleton When the U.S. government extended pandemic hardship loans to thousands of religious institutions, Jim Bakker and Morningside USA, his ministry in Blue Eye, Missouri, were among the most high-profile recipients. On April 28, the pastor received approval for an amount between $650,000 and $1.7 million in Paycheck Protection Program funds. Weeks before, …

Business partner of Falwells says affair with evangelical power couple spanned seven years

By Aram Roston In a claim likely to intensify the controversy surrounding one of the most influential figures in the American Christian conservative movement, a business partner of Jerry Falwell Jr has come forward to say he had a years-long sexual relationship involving Falwell’s wife and the evangelical leader. Giancarlo Granda says he was 20 …