NEW HUMANIST VOLUME 122 No4 Tel 0207 436 1151 Fax 0207 079 3588 Email info@newhumanist.org.uk Editorial Offices 1 Gower Street, London WC1E 6HD

Editor Caspar Melville Commissioning Editor Laurie Taylor Associate Editor Sally Feldman Editorial Assistant Paul Sims Designer Nick McKay Cartoons Martin Rowson, Judy Walker Subscription manager Judith Walker Subscription assistant Holly Walsh Subscription enquiries judith.walker@newhumanist.org.uk Tel 0207 436 1171 Advertising jamie@cabbell.co.uk Website www.newhumanist.org.uk ISSN 0306-512X

Published by the Rationalist Association RA President Jonathan Miller Vice presidents Baroness Susan Greenfield, Paul Kurtz, Laurie Taylor Honorary associates David Aaronovitch, Peter Atkins, Lord Birt, Harold Blackham, Colin Blakemore, Alan Brownjohn, Colin Campbell, Philip Campbell, Noam Chomsky, Bernard Crick, Helena Cronin, Richard Dawkins, Sanal Edamaruku, Paul Edwards, Ekow Eshun, Winston Fletcher, Michael Foot, AC Grayling, Stuart Hall, Tony Harrison, Simon Heffer, James Hemming, Christopher Hitchens, Eric Hobsbawm, Richard Hoggart, Ted Honderich, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Sir Ludovic Kennedy, Richard Leakey, Sir Michael Levey, Sir John Maddox, Haydn Mason, George Melly, Edwin Mullins, Conor Cruise O’Brien, John Postgate, Claire Rayner, Amartya Sen, David Starkey, Ralph Steadman, DJ Stewart, Ian Stewart, Hazhir Teimourian, Claire Tomalin, David Tribe, Baroness Turner of Camden, Arnold Wesker, Francis Wheen, Lewis Wolpert

4 new humanist July August 2007

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REGULARS 3] Editorial Style matters 6] Parish news 8 ] Yours sceptically Readers’ letters 36 ] Letters for numbers Chris Maslanka’s quiz

46] Endgame Laurie Taylor finds a playmate

FEATURES 10] Bosphorus straits Turkey’s crisis threatens us all, argues Ahmet Altan

12] Irish stew Newton Emerson on the surprising rise of Ulster’s secularism

14] Charity balls Richard Curtis tells Laurie Taylor why sentimentality is better than cynicism 21] Springtime for Hitler We cannot ignore Nazi links to modernism, warns Roger Griffin 24] Hollow land Eyal Weizman’s map of the West Bank reveals colonisation by design, says Daniel Miller 26] Atheism a la mode Michel Onfray adds a French flavour to the “God book” bonanza 34] Through the looking glass AC Grayling throws some light on John Gray’s dim world view 38] High flyer Danny Postel remembers the daring philosophy of Richard Rorty

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