ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 59

‘Christianity Will Have Power’

By Elizabeth Dias They walked to the sanctuary in the frozen silence before dawn, footsteps crunching over the snow. Soon, hundreds joined in line. It was January 2016, and the unlikely Republican front-runner, Donald J. Trump, had come to town. He was the boastful, thrice-married, foul-mouthed star of “The Apprentice.” They were one of the …

Americans Oppose Religious Exemptions From Coronavirus-Related Restrictions

By the Pew Research Center A new Pew Research Center survey finds that U.S. adults overwhelmingly say houses of worship should be required to follow the same rules about social distancing and large gatherings as other organizations or businesses in their local area. About eight-in-ten Americans (79%) take this position, four times the share who …

A Star Went Supernova in 1987. Where Is It Now?

By Dennis Overbye It was one of the great fireworks displays of recent cosmic history. On Feb. 23, 1987, Earth time, a massive star blew apart right in front of the world’s astronomers, strewing ribbons and rings of glowing gas across the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy on the doorstep of the Milky Way. …

Alabama state Rep. Will Dismukes arrested for theft

By Mike Cason Alabama State Rep. Will Dismukes, R-Prattville, who last week came under fire for attending a birthday party for the Ku Klux Klan’s first leader, has been charged in connection with a theft at a business where Dismukes worked. Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey made the announcement of the first-degree theft of …

Satanic Temple says religious freedoms exempt abortion rights from state laws

By Larry D. Curtis The Satanic Temple says its members’ religious rights are exempt from state laws or regulations that hinder access to abortion services. “TST bases its assertions of abortion mandate exemptions on the protections provided by State Religious Freedom Restoration Acts or RFRA, which generally prohibits the government from substantially interfering with a …

Wole Soyinka protests imprisonment of Nigerian humanist Mubarak Bala

By Alison Flood The Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, who was held as a political prisoner in Nigeria in the 1960s, has written a letter of solidarity to the detained Nigerian humanist Mubarak Bala on his 100th day in detention. Bala, the president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, was arrested on 28 April at his home in …

Mystery ancestor mated with ancient humans. And its ‘nested’ DNA was just found.

By Stephanie Pappas Today’s humans carry the genes of an ancient, unknown ancestor, left there by hominin species intermingling perhaps a million years ago. The ancestor may have been Homo erectus, but no one knows for sure — the genome of that extinct species of human has never been sequenced, said Adam Siepel, a computational biologist …

Study: Christian Nationalism is “Leading Predictor” of Negligent COVID Response

By Val Wilde At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, it was a story we saw over and over: Christian pastors like the notorious Tony Spell defiantly announcing their intention to continue gathering in large numbers, sans masks, claiming precautions against spreading disease infringed on their religious liberty. So it’s a fair question to ask: Does Christian belief lead people to disregard COVID-19 precautions …

Researchers reveal patterns of sexual abuse in religious settings

By Geoff McMaster A recent literature review by a University of Alberta cult expert and his former graduate student paints a startling and consistent picture of institutional secrecy and widespread protection of those who abuse children in religious institutions “in ways that often differ from forms of manipulation in secular settings.” It’s the first comprehensive …

Trump attacks faith of Catholic Biden: ‘He is against the bible’

By Justin Vallejo Donald Trump, who has been courting religious voters ahead of the 2020 election, said on Thursday that Catholic rival Joe Biden is “against the Bible”. During a wide-ranging radio interview with Geraldo Rivera, Mr Trump honed in on Mr Biden’s religion even as the president himself has faced criticism for using the …