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By Liam Stack It’s that time of year again, folks. It’s time for the War on Christmas. What is that, you may ask? The short answer: a sometimes histrionic yuletide debate over whether the United States is a country that respects Christianity. For the longer answer, keep reading. Continue reading by clicking the name of …

By Mary Emily O’Hara Earlier this month, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Senator Mike Lee of Utah, through his spokesperson, told Buzzfeed they plan to reintroduce an embattled bill that barely gained a House hearing in 2015. But this time around, they said, the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) was likely to succeed due …

By Adam Chandler Earlier this week, the Pew Research Center released a study that analyzed over 40 years of American dietary habits. For the Bittmans, Pollans, and public-health junkies alike, the results were baffling and, by many possible interpretations of the word, disheartening. Using decades of data from the USDA, Pew found that Americans are …

By Antonia Blumberg Religion drives American attitudes toward evolution, according to a new study, but that’s not necessarily the case for climate change. A recent study set out to discover whether religion factors into anti-science attitudes across the board. It found that while religious views drive Americans’ skepticism of evolution, climate change denial is more dependent …

“And using the world more is a big part of what’s going to de-stigmatize it. Marnie, who grew up in southern New Hampshire in a generically Christian family, says, “I try to avoid hedging and avoiding the topic, when it’s brought up. I feel strongly that when ostensibly ‘normal’ people say they are atheists without …

By Nicholas Wade At the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif., scientists are trying to get time to run backward. Biological time, that is. In the first attempt to reverse aging by reprogramming the genome, they have rejuvenated the organs of mice and lengthened their life spans by 30 percent. The technique, which requires genetic …

By Katherine Stewart BOSTON — At the rightmost edge of the Christian conservative movement, there are those who dream of turning the United States into a Christian republic subject to “biblical laws.” In the unlikely figure of Donald J. Trump, they hope to have found their greatest champion yet. He wasn’t “our preferred candidate,” the …

In June 2016, astrophysicist Adam Frank wrote in the New York Times, “Yes, There Have Been Aliens.” His story follows the discoveries of one frontier of astronomy, exoplanet research, which seeks to find and describe planets around stars other than our sun.    His conclusion? While we see no evidence for intelligent life anywhere, it’s …

by Kacem El Ghazzali It has become crystal clear that Islam needs an Enlightenment. However, initiating the Enlightenment process is a near impossible task – so what can be done? First, it’s important to agree on some basic concepts. For example, it is not “Islamophobic” for someone to criticize everyday conservative Islam generally and Islamism …

By Samuel Tadros Little could dampen the enthusiasm of 13-year-old Tony Atef as he wore his soccer outfit and headed to Egypt’s most successful club, Al Ahly, to partake in the team’s junior soccer tryouts. After Tony scored two goals, a coach approached him, asking for his name to record among those accepted. But his …

By Erica Goode KAKTOVIK, Alaska — Come fall, polar bears are everywhere around this Arctic village, dozing on sand spits, roughhousing in the shallows, padding down the beach with cubs in tow and attracting hundreds of tourists who travel long distances to see them. At night, the bears steal into town, making it dangerous to …

By Graeme Wood At dawn on a warm September morning in 2013, a minivan pulled up to a shattered villa in the town of Azaz, Syria. A long-bearded 29-year-old white man emerged from the building, along with his pregnant British wife and their three children, ages 8, 4, and almost 2. They had been in …