IN THIS ISSUE

Humanist
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Volume 121 No 3 May/June 2006 EDITOR Caspar Melville DEPUTY EDITOR Pádraig Reidy COMMISSIONING EDITOR Laurie Taylor ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sally Feldman DESIGNER Paul Anderson CARTOONIST Martin Rowson SPECIAL THANKS Farah Reza, Meena Chauhan EDITORIAL OFFICES 1 Gower Street, London WC1E 6HD Tel 020 7436 1151 Fax 020 7079 3588 Email info@newhumanist.org.uk Website www.newhumanist.org.uk ISSN 0306-512X
Published by the Rationalist Association. Available on microfilm for libraries in the USA from: Proquest, 300 Northzeeb Road, Ann Arbour, Michigan, USA

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JUDGEMENT DAYS Laurie Taylor meets the millenarians

COLUMNS

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NEW TESTAMENTS Carol Lee visits Soweto 30 years after the uprising THINKERS UNITE Eve Garrard speaks for a new political manifesto PLEASURE PRINCIPLES Peter Cave celebrates 200 years of JS MIll BIRTH CONTROL Are you funding eugenics? Barckley Sumner investigates FEAR FACTOR Ben Marshall asks if it’s wrong to hate a bad idea

RA ASSOCIATES
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, Antony Flew, 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, Jonathan Miller, Edwin Mullins, Conor Cruise O’Brien, Jack Parsons, 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

REGULARS
EDITORIAL PARISH NEWS LETTERS CONCRETE REASONING Competition ENDGAME The sun goes down on Laurie Taylor

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INTELLIGENT DESIGN Jonathan Derbyshire wonders what intellectuals are for

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NEW HUMANIST

IN THIS ISSUE

CONTENTS
VOLUME 121 NO 3 MAY/JUNE 2006
COVER STORY

CULTURE

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LOST GODS Andrew Mueller remembers the New York Dolls BOOKS MARTIN ROWSON on Will Eisner pioneer of the graphic novel TOBY SAUL enjoys the grim power of late Roth PAUL KURTZ faces the challenge of the Christian right LEWIS WOLPERT considers the legend of Stephen Jay Gould TONY RUSSELL visits Satchmo’s city JUDITH VIDAL-HALL on the worst kind of censorship

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SPIRITED AWAY
Supporters claim that mysticism has a basis in science and reason. Poppycock, says Meera Nanda
FEATURES

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SEX CRIMES Brian Whitaker on homosexuality in the Arab world MEME WARS Can evolution explain culture? Adam Kuper and Susan Blackmore debate

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INVOCATION A new poem by Julian Turner

‘I’m getting toasted bibles with a hint of corduroy’

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BECAUSE YOU’RE WORTH IT Why are religions in such a tangle about women’s hair, asks Sally Feldman

Get yourself a bargain at New Humanist’s Wine Club see Page 19
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