ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 66

Supreme Court’s religious employer ruling could weaken LGBTQ protections

By Julie Moreau The Supreme Court’s ruling Wednesday in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, which strengthened the legal protections that shield religious institutions from job discrimination lawsuits, could weaken LGBTQ worker protections, according to some legal experts and advocates. The case involved Roman Catholic schools in California that were sued after deciding not to …

Beyond the Milky Way, a Galactic Wall

By Dennis Overbye Astronomers have discovered that there is a vast wall across the southern border of the local cosmos. The South Pole Wall, as it is known, consists of thousands of galaxies — beehives of trillions of stars and dark worlds, as well as dust and gas — aligned in a curtain arcing across …

Northern Ireland to get religious same-sex marriage

By Rachel Savage Same-sex religious marriages will be allowed in Northern Ireland, the British government said on Thursday, bowing to pressure from LGBT+ campaigners after the first secular lesbian wedding in February. Gay and lesbian couples in Northern Ireland will be able to have religious weddings from September, a British government spokeswoman said in an …

Bakker, Swaggart among televangelists and religious organizations that received PPP loans

By Zack Budryk More than 10,000 religious organizations received financial aid through the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for a total of at least $3 billion, according to an analysis by The Guardian. The recipients range from individual houses of worship to schools to ministries, including that of televangelist Jim Bakker, who was imprisoned in the …

Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B

By Reese Dunklin and Michael Rezendes The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups. The church’s haul may have …

Astronomers Detect Unexpected Class of Mysterious Circular Objects in Space

By Michelle Starr Although we usually have a pretty good handle on all the different kinds of blips and blobs detected by our telescopes, it would be unwise to assume we’ve seen everything there is to see out there in the big, wide Universe. Case in point: a new kind of signal spotted by radio …

Ohio now requires masks at religious services in worst COVID counties

By Darrel Rowland Everyone attending religious services in Ohio’s hardest-hit COVID counties must wear a mask except the “officiant,” under a new state health order issued Wednesday night. The unannounced move — the first time the administration of Gov. Mike DeWine has issued a health order directly reaching inside religious gatherings — drew a host …

Satanists: We’ll Sue if Mississippi Puts “In God We Trust” on Its New Flag

By Hemant Mehta Late last month, Mississippi lawmakers decided they would retire their old racist flag with a Confederate symbol on it and choose a new one in the near future. After getting rid of the symbol, there was just one rule: The new flag had to include the words “In God We Trust.” That’s not going …

Kanye’s running for president — and his platform has a lot of God in it

By Jack Jenkins Kanye West is running for president, and he believes God told him to do it. That’s according to an interview West conducted with Forbes magazine this week, in which he discussed his newly announced bid to win the White House as an independent candidate. It may be the first time the multiple Grammy-winning rapper …

New Clues To ALS And Alzheimer’s Disease From Physics

By Jon Hamilton The same process that causes dew drops to form on a blade of grass appears to play an important role in Alzheimer’s disease and other brain diseases. The process, known as phase transition, is what allows water vapor to condense into liquid water, or even freeze into solid ice. That same sort of …