ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 90

Survey numbers chart evangelical defiance against the states

By Paul A. Djupe The coronavirus pandemic has raised a number of difficult questions concerning personal freedoms and public safety, with religion front and center. Should congregations continue to gather in person for worship and other social functions? Can the state restrict religious organizations from fully free functioning? In recent cases in Louisiana and Florida, …

Antibiotic treatment for COVID-19 complications could fuel resistant bacteria

By Sara Reardon In her regular job, Priya Nori runs Montefiore Medical Center’s antibiotic stewardship program, and spends most of her time ensuring that the Bronx-based hospital doesn’t overuse the drugs and allow bacteria resistant to them to thrive. But like many physicians, Nori is now spending all of her time helping treat COVID-19 patients …

COVID-19-Defying Pastor’s Parishioner Dies After Contracting COVID-19

By Hemant Mehta Pastor Tony Spell, the head of Louisiana’s Life Tabernacle Church, has refused to close his church because “True Christians do not mind dying,” and now we’re seeing proof of that. On the same day we learned Spell’s lawyer was hospitalized for COVID-19, we found out a member of his congregation died of the same virus. …

Kansas churches, pastors sue Gov. Kelly over coronavirus ban on religious gatherings

By Jason Tidd Two Kansas churches and their pastors are suing the governor over her executive order that bans mass religious gatherings due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Wichita by Calvary Baptist Church in Junction City and pastor Aaron Harris and First Baptist Church in …

Prominent Southern Baptist Albert Mohler opposed Trump in 2016. Now, he says he will vote for the president.

By Sarah Pulliam Bailey The Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., one of the key leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, plans to vote for President Trump in the fall, a reversal of his position in 2016 when he argued that support of Trump risks destroying evangelicals’ credibility. Mohler, who was also critical of Democratic presidential …

A star orbiting the Milky Way’s giant black hole confirms Einstein was right

By Emily Conover The first sign that Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity was correct has made a repeat appearance, this time near a supermassive black hole. In 1915, Einstein realized that his newly formulated general theory of relativity explained a weird quirk in the orbit of Mercury. Now, that same effect has been found in a star’s …

How Saudi Arabia’s religious project transformed Indonesia

By Krithika Varagur Half a million people, all dressed in white, radiated from the Hotel Indonesia roundabout in central Jakarta. Protesters clogged the streets for a mile in every direction; they went all the way up to the National Monument and beyond it to the presidential palace. It was 4 November 2016, and they had come …

Franklin Graham accuses New York officials of opposing coronavirus hospital over religious beliefs

By Kaelan Deese The Rev. Franklin Graham on Tuesday accused New York officials of harassment for criticizing his medical organization, which has required workers at its Central Park field hospital to sign a pledge saying they are Christians who oppose gay marriage. Graham made the accusation in a Facebook post shortly before Mount Sinai Health Systems, which is working with …

Inside the Fringe Japanese Religion That Claims It Can Cure Covid-19

By Sam Kestenbaum When New York went into lockdown last month, emissaries of a religious group called Happy Science showed up in a ghostly Times Square to deliver a peculiar end-of-days gospel. They wore ritual golden sashes and huddled in a semicircle. “Doomsday may seem to be coming,” a young minister said. “But the greatest …

Why the Big Bang Produced Something Rather Than Nothing

By Dennis Overbye Scientists on Wednesday announced that they were perhaps one step closer to understanding why the universe contains something rather than nothing. Part of the blame, or the glory, they say, may belong to the flimsiest, quirkiest and most elusive elements of nature: neutrinos. These ghostly subatomic particles stream from the Big Bang, …