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Through online presentations, in-person and virtual workshops, and a trove of free resources, the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES) gives teachers the tools they need to effectively teach evolution and answer its critics. TIES is kicking off 2021 with its first new webinar of the year tomorrow night. On Thursday, January 7, at 8 p.m. ET, …

Remember the monoliths? Those mysterious obelisks that kept appearing in seemingly arbitrary locations, such as a desert in Utah, near a fortress in Romania, and even one on a mountain in California that some folks tore down because they felt it was insufficiently deferential to Jesus. Of course now they’re so last year, but for a moment …

As an ideology that seeks political and cultural dominance for a particularly conservative brand of Christianity, Christian nationalism is an obvious threat to secularism, true religious equality, and the rights of the nonreligious. But it’s also a threat to public health and science in general. A new study by sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry …

Last week, President Trump announced in a tweet (of course) the departure of Attorney General William Barr, reportedly because the president felt that Barr was insufficiently committed to overturning the results of the presidential election. While reticence about subverting democracy is a good thing, we can’t say we’re sad to see him go, for Barr made …

The Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES) is a program of the Richard Dawkins Foundation that gives middle school teachers the tools they need to effectively teach evolution and answer its critics. Having put on free in-person workshops in all fifty states before the pandemic, TIES has fully embraced its new role as an online source …

In the latest Skeptical Inquirer Presents online event, Sean B. Carroll wowed over 700 real-time viewers with a fascinating look at how random chance has shaped the universe we live in at every level, from the macrocosmic to the microscopic. Not only was it revelatory to think of the odds against each of us being …

A few months ago, 5G wireless technology was in the news because of absurd conspiracy theories claiming that 5G towers were spreading the coronavirus. This nonsensical myth is still propagating, even as tech giants such as Apple are singing the praises of 5G. Meanwhile, many people still harbor fears that cell phone signals cause cancer. …

A cofounder of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, Rep. Jamie Raskin has been a passionate advocate for the rights of nonbelievers around the world. Earlier this week, after delivering a stirring speech on the floor of the House, Raskin pushed through a resolution calling for the global repeal of blasphemy, heresy, and apostasy laws. “Everyone must …

As the Trump presidency sputters to a close, idealogues in the administration are scrambling to implement policies that further erode church-state separation, undermine science, and remove protections for groups the religious right doesn’t like. For example, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia has finalized a rule allowing federal contractors to discriminate against racial and religious minorities, women, …

Around the end of the twentieth century, the U.S. was one of the world’s most religious countries, but around 2007 something shifted, and since then America has become the eleventh least religious country. What happened? In the latest issue of Free Inquiry, Robyn Blumner, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry and the Richard Dawkins …

By Soo Youn It took one weekend to leave Tessa Russell truly exposed. On 6 April 2019, her girlfriend Ash Ables traveled to Liberty University in central Virginia to surprise her. They had been dating for four months, but it was her first time visiting Russell on campus. The two were eating pizza in front …

By Al-Jazeera India’s governing Hindu nationalist party has approved legislation in the country’s most populous state that lays out a prison term of up to 10 years for anyone found guilty of using marriage to force someone to change religion. The decree for the state of Uttar Pradesh was passed on Tuesday and follows a …