NEW HUMANIST VOLUME 122 No6 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 Cover, illustrations Martin Rowson Cartoons Judy Walker Business Manager Judith Walker Subscriptions Jillian Gibbins Subscriptions enquiries jillian.gibbins@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, Edwin Mullins, Conor Cruise O’Brien, John Postgate, Claire Rayner, Amartya Sen, David Starkey, Ralph Steadman, DJ Stewart, Ian Stewart, Claire Tomalin, David Tribe, Baroness Turner of Camden, Arnold Wesker, Francis Wheen, Lewis Wolpert

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RegulaRs 3] Editorial The A word 6] Parish news 8 ] Yours sceptically Readers’ letters 45] Hit and misanthropy Chris Maslanka’s quiz

46] Endgame Laurie Taylor can’t contain himself

featuRes 10] Allah’s ambassadors Edna Fernandes gains unique access to the Taliban’s school 14] Demob happy Former Guardian religious affairs correspondent Stephen Bates on leaving the faith game

16] Holy communion Is God-bashing the new religion? asks Richard Norman 20] Getting better all the time We have a moral obligation to genetically enhance human beings, argues John Harris 22] Check republics Sally Feldman reclaims the royal game for rationalism 26] God almighty PLC Marketing expert Winston Fletcher analyses a world-beating strategy 28] Global warning Philosopher Tzvetan Todorov reflects on the Danish cartoon protests 32] Campus crusades Nigerian universities are under threat from fundamentalists, warns Ebenezer Obadare