ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 75

Lawsuit Says Atheist Parolee Spent 5 Months in Jail for Not Going to Bible Study

By Hemant Mehta In 2015, atheist Mark Janny was released from jail. (The reason he was there is irrelevant to this story.) His parole officer, John Gamez, told Janny that if he wanted to remain out of prison, he would have to live at the Denver Rescue Mission, a Christian homeless shelter. That shelter’s rules required residents to …

Trump faith advisers say the president did the right thing by visiting church

By Jack Jenkins Informal evangelical Christian advisers to President Donald Trump have long championed religious freedom as a key issue that should be embraced by the administration, often arguing passionately against government infringement on religious activities. That’s why some have framed the president’s recent (June 1) photo-op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, in …

Perhaps More Than Ever – Truth Matters

By Steven Novella The following quote from a recent address to graduating student resonated with me: “What’s become clear is that social media can also be a tool to spread conflict, divisions, and falsehoods, to bully people and promote hate,” he said. “Too often, it shuts us off from each other instead of bringing us …

Why a vaccine may not be enough to end the pandemic

By Umair Irfan Without a vaccine or treatment, the world has been forced to adopt severe tactics to slow the spread of Covid-19: social distancing, shutdowns, closures, and cancellations. As states in the US begin to reopen, it’s clear there is still much hardship to come — for those laid off, for businesses forced to implement …

Supreme Court Rejects Church’s Challenge To California’s Coronavirus Rules

By Colin Dwyer The Supreme Court has rejected a California church’s attempt to overturn the state’s coronavirus restrictions on in-person religious services. In a 5-4 decision issued late Friday, Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court’s liberal bloc in upholding the state’s right to impose limits on congregations in order to slow the spread …

In Changing U.S. Electorate, Race and Education Remain Stark Dividing Lines

By the Pew Research Center Republicans hold wide advantages in party identification among several groups of voters, including white men without a college degree, people living in rural communities in the South and those who frequently attend religious services. Democrats hold formidable advantages among a contrasting set of voters, such as black women, residents of …

Reflections on the Color of My Skin

By Neil deGrasse Tyson At a physics conference I attended long ago, while sipping wine left over from the final dinner, a dozen of us peeled off and started arguing about fun geeky things. Why does Superman need a cape? And why do cans of Diet Pepsi float while cans of regular Pepsi sink? And …

Scientists Found A ‘Mirror Image’ Of Our Planet And The Sun

By Jamie Carter Our region of the Milky Way is dominated by red dwarf stars, but if you look up at the night sky you’ll not see any of them. Smaller than our Sun, not one single red dwarf star is visible to the naked eye, not even the next star along, Proxima Centauri, which is …

In Mixed News for Atheists, Democrats’ Religiosity Has Withered In Last 12 Years

By Terry Firma Fodder for the right-wing outrage machine: The percentage of Democrat and Democrat-leaning voters who identify as Christian has sharply declined since 2008, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center. [The] report … found that while 73% of Democrat voters were Christian in 2008, by 2019 the percentage had dropped to 52%. The large decline came …

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: Racism Won’t Stop Until We ‘Accept Jesus Christ’

By Ed Mazza Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Wednesday night claimed that the root of America’s racial problems was the lack of faith by “the left.” Speaking after more than a week of demonstrations against the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, Patrick tried to pin the nation’s long and …