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IN THIS ISSUE
NEW
Humanist
Volume 121 No 5 September/October 2006
EDITOR Caspar Melville
DEPUTY EDITOR Pádraig Reidy
COMMISSIONING EDITOR Laurie Taylor
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sally Feldman
DESIGNER Paul Anderson
CARTOONIST Martin Rowson
SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER Judith Walker
SUBSCRIPTIONS ASSISTANT 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
RATIONALIST ASSOCIATION President: Jonathan Miller Vice Presidents: Baroness Susan Greenfield,Paul Kurtz,Laurie Taylor
HONORARY ASSOCIATESDavid 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
4 NEWHUMANIST
20WALKING THE TIGHTROPE Ramin Jahanbegloo’s fight for a liberal Iran
22HUMAN TOUCH Michael Frayn tells Laurie Taylor how we made the universe
COLUMNS 6DIARY ACGrayling heads to Darwin’s domain 13TRUE BLUE Imogen Edwards-Jones discovers her inner Tory 16WHAT A PIECE OF WORK Brian McClinton on Shakespeare’s humanism 29DEVIL IN THE DETAIL Pádraig Reidy reads the Signs
REGULARS
3 EDITORIAL
7 PARISH NEWS
17 WINE CLUB
40 LETTERS
41 CONCRETE REASONING
42 ENDGAME Laurie Taylor uncovers a new prejudice
Stumped by our summer quiz? Find the answers on page 33