ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 87

Space Telescope Director Says Best Is Yet to Come for Hubble

By Lee Billings Thirty years ago a team of NASA astronauts tipped the Hubble Space Telescope out of a space shuttle’s cargo bay and into low-Earth orbit. High above our planet’s starlight-smearing atmosphere, Hubble could study phenomena across the cosmos that ground-based observatories could never hope to see. It was not the first space telescope, …

Vast Majority of Americans Stayed Home for Easter, Oppose Religious Exemptions to Stay-at-Home Orders

By PRRI Staff Despite the reports of a few clergy defiantly promising to hold in-person services on Easter weekend amid the growing coronavirus pandemic, the vast majority of Americans say their churches were closed on the most widely attended Sunday of the year, and very few indicated they planned to attend religious services in person. …

Nigerian Police Arrest Humanist Leader Mubarak Bala for Alleged “Blasphemy”

By Hemant Mehta Earlier today, Nigerian police arrested Mubarak Bala, President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, for “blasphemy” after he allegedly posted criticism of Islam on his Facebook page. This is the same Bala who was placed in a mental hospital in 2014 for the “crime” of being an atheist. He was later released, but that didn’t stop …

Iowa religious leaders opt out of Reynolds’ eased COVID-19 restrictions

By Beau Bowman An order signed Monday by Gov. Kim Reynolds allows religious institutions to begin gathering again, but some church leaders said they do not think it is safe to do so. On Tuesday, the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa announced that 21 leaders from 10 denominations signed a statement urging religious institutions to refrain …

Religious freedoms in India deteriorated last year, U.S. government watchdog says

By Michelle Boorstein and Joanna Slater Religious freedoms in India deteriorated sharply last year as the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi allowed “campaigns of harassment and violence” against Muslims and other religious minorities to continue, according to a U.S. watchdog group. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a government body that monitors conditions …

Blasphemy to be decriminalised in Scottish hate crime bill

By the AFP The Scottish government has published a bill that would decriminalise blasphemy, more than 175 years after the last case was prosecuted. The devolved administration in Edinburgh said the continued criminalisation of blasphemy, which falls under hate crime laws, “no longer reflects the kind of society in which we live”. Justice minister Humza …

Nonedecision 2020: 5 Reasons Secular Americans are Poised to become Major Force in US Politics

By Juhem Navarro-Rivera One of the demographic aspects of the nones (Americans who answer “atheist,” “agnostic,” or “nothing in particular” when asked their religious affiliation) that’s been well covered in the media is how the group’s growth is fueled by young people, particularly those under the age of thirty. What’s not necessarily known is how …

Under Trump, coronavirus scientists can speak — as long as they mostly toe the line

By Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, Yasmeen Abutaleb and Lena H. Sun Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, issued a candid warning Tuesday in a Washington Post interview: A simultaneous flu and coronavirus outbreak next fall and winter “will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” adding …

Chloroquine hype is derailing the search for coronavirus treatments

By Heidi Ledford People with COVID-19 who arrive at the Salvador Zubirán National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition in Mexico City to search for treatment can choose from a menu of clinical trials, carefully presented by a worker trained to offer an unbiased portrait of the potential risks and benefits. But neurologist Sergio Iván …

Kansas School Settles Lawsuit After President Forced Christianity on Faculty

By Hemant Mehta Garden City Community College in Kansas just paid out $87,500 to six plaintiffs as part of a settlement involving the conduct of administrators. There were many complaints made against GCCC President Herbert Swender (who was fired in 2018) and his team, but one in particular says they forced faculty members to join them in Christian prayer despite …