ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 93

Turkey’s state religious body undermines anti-coronavirus efforts

By Pinar Tremblay As the world goes through a deadly pandemic that is causing social disruption and economic loss, religion can be an essential source of individual comfort and communal solidarity. In Turkey, however, the Religious Affairs Directorate — Diyanet, the country’s main religious body that works directly under the presidency and coordinates most religious activity for …

U.S. coronavirus restrictions create split among religious liberty advocates

By Lawrence Hurley When an evangelical Christian pastor was arrested in Florida for flouting a stay-at-home order aimed at curbing the new coronavirus, a conservative religious liberty group was quick to leap to his defense. But the decision by Liberty Counsel to represent Rodney Howard-Browne, co-founder of The River at Tampa Bay Church, marks a …

A Missionary on Trial

By Ariel Levy In the summer of 2013, Ziria Namutamba heard that there was a missionary health facility a few hours from her village, in southeastern Uganda, where a white doctor was treating children. She decided to go there with her grandson Twalali Kifabi, who was unwell. At three, he weighed as much as an …

Origins of Uranus’ oddities explained by Japanese astronomers

By Tokyo Institute of Technology The ice giant Uranus’ unusual attributes have long puzzled scientists. All of the planets in the solar system revolve around the sun in the same direction and in the same plane, which astronomers believe is a vestige of how our solar system formed from a spinning disc of gas and …

Landlord changes locks on California church after pastor said he’d continue to hold services

By Lisa Fernandez Members of a central California church found themselves locked out of the building after the pastor originally kept his doors open, saying the shelter-in-place orders violated his freedom to assemble. But within the past week, the landlord of the Cross Culture Christian Center in Lodi, Calif. changed the locks, so congregants couldn’t …

Catholics for Trump Coalition Loaded With Anti-LGBTQ Extremists

By Trudy Ring Anti-LGBTQ activists are well-represented in Catholics for Trump, a coalition supporting Donald Trump’s reelection as president that launched Thursday night with an online event. Cochairs of the coalition’s advisory board include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, long noted for hostility to LGBTQ rights. Members of the board include another former congressman, Tim Huelskamp, who …

Australia’s High Court Overturns Cardinal Pell’s Child Sexual Abuse Conviction

By Barbara Campbell and Scott Neuman Australia’s High Court has found reasonable doubt that Cardinal George Pell sexually assaulted two boys in the 1990s and has overturned his conviction. The court acquitted the former Vatican treasurer of the charges, and no retrial will be possible. The High Court ordered that he be released. Pell, 78, had …

Astronomers spot never-before-seen gravitational wave source from binary white dwarf stars

By Chelsea Gohd Astronomers have detected two stellar corpses whirling around each other, and they might be producing gravitational waves. White dwarf stars are what become of stars like our sun after they run out of fuel and turn into leftover hot cores. For many years, researchers have predicted that there should be binary, or two-object, systems …

Franklin Graham tells Judge Jeannine that pandemic happened because world “turned its back on God”

By Matthew Rozsa Christian evangelist Franklin Graham told Judge Jeannine Pirro on Fox News that the coronavirus pandemic happened because the world “has turned its back on God.” “Well, I don’t think it’s God’s plan for this to happen,” Graham told Pirro after she asked Saturday why God would allow a pandemic to occur. “It’s because of …

How Do Evangelical Missionaries in Brazil Justify Risking Indigenous Lives During a Pandemic?

By Chrissy Stroop Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and U.S. President Donald Trump have a lot in common. Neither man has much respect for the rule of law. Bolsonaro enjoys buffoonishly attacking the press as much as Trump. Both have spread misinformation about the seriousness of COVID-19, thereby worsening the coronavirus crisis in both Brazil and the United States. (Although they’re evidently …