RATIONALIST a s s o c i a t i o n

RATIONALIST a s s o c i a t i o n march & april 2012 VOLUME 127 No 2

RATIONALIST a s s o c i a t i o n

RATIONALIST a s s o c i a t i o n honorary associates David Aaronovitch Peter Atkins Lord Birt Colin Blakemore Alan Brownjohn Colin Campbell Philip Campbell Noam Chomsky Helena Cronin Richard Dawkins Sanal Edamaruku Ekow Eshun AC Grayling Trevor Griffiths Stuart Hall Tony Harrison Simon Heffer Eric Hobsbawm Richard Hoggart Ted Honderich Robin Ince Linton Kwesi Johnson Richard Leakey

RATIONALIST a s s o c i a t i o n ditorial Editor Caspar Melville News Editor Paul Sims Commissioning Editor Laurie Taylor Associate Editor Sally Feldman Cartoons Editor Judy Walker Designer Nick McKay cover Getty Images/David Leveson Website www.newhumanist.org.uk MARKETING & distribution Business Manager Judith Walker Marketing Executive Cassandra Scott Advertising info@newhumanist.org.uk Distribution Comag Specialist Telephone 01895 433 753 SUBSCRIPTIONS subscriptions New Humanist Subscriptions, Trinity House, Sculpins Lane, Wethersfield, Braintree, Essex, CM7 4AY Email newhumanist@escosubs.co.uk Telephone 01371 851881 Fax 01371 851808 PublishING The Rationalist Association Registered charity No 1096577, a company limited by guarantee No 4118489 RA President Jonathan Miller RA Board Sally Feldman Winston Fletcher Jose Gonsalves John Metcalf David Pollock Tess Woodcraft Jonathan Stopes-Roe Chairman Laurie Taylor

RATIONALIST a s s o c i a t i o n

Stewart Lee Kenan Malik Haydn Mason Edwin Mullins John Postgate Philip Pullman Jonathan Rée Amartya Sen Simon Singh Marcus du Sautoy David Starkey Ralph Steadman DJ Stewart Ian Stewart Hazhir Teimourian Claire Tomalin David Tribe Baroness Turner of Camden Arnold Wesker Francis Wheen Elizabeth Wilson Richard Wiseman Lewis Wolpert Editorial Ofices Merchants House, 5-7 Southwark Street, London SE1 1RQ Telephone 020 3117 0630 Fax 020 7407 7962 Email info@newhumanist.org.uk NEWHUMANIST, ISSN 0306-512X, is published 6 times a year by the Rationalist Association © 2012 New Humanist. Printed by Blackmore Ltd, Dorset. Distribution by Comag Specialist. FSC Certification number TT-COC-002714. The mark of responsible forestry © 1996 Forest Stewardship Council A.C. The views expressed in New Humanist are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Rationalist Association CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISUE

sarah ditum is a freelance journalist, whose writing has appeared in the New Statesman, Psychologies and the Guardian’s Comment is Free. On page 10 she examines the anti-choice campaign spearheaded by the Tory MP Nadine Dorries.

nick cohen’s new book, You Can’t Read This Book (Fourth Estate), traces the myriad ways in which censorship has triumphed in the last 20 years. On page 14, he offers a rousing ten-point manifesto for all those who wish to protect free speech.

4 New Humanist march april 2012

angela Saini is a science journalist and author of Geek Nation: How Indian Science is Taking over the World (Hodder). Examining the fallout from last year’s Fukushima nuclear crisis on page 22, she argues the disaster has made atomic power safer than before.

stephen cave is an author and philosopher. His new book, Immortality: Testing Civilisation’s Greatest Promise (Biteback), examines our urge to outwit the Grim Reaper. On page 39 he explains how even atheists are not immune from illusions of eternity.

elizabeth wilson is a cultural historian, novelist and occasional Tarot reader. On page 24 she defends her dabbling in the dark arts. Cultural Passions, a collection of her cultural criticism and essays, will be published later this year by IB Tauris.

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