
Volume 120 Issue 4 July/August 2005
Cover Story
- Bad Karma
- A recent court case in the United States has found Hare Krishnas guilty of child abuse on a massive scale. Mary Garden uncovers the story of a hidden scandal
Columns
- Taliban tendency
- What is the right balance between authority and autonomy, between prohibition and freedom? This has become the overarching question during Tony Blair�s third term.
- God can't save Africa
- Manmade problems require manmade solutions, argues Ebenezer Obadare
- Lobbing Horseshit
- With everyone talking about the need for 'respect' Martin Rowson reckons it's time to come clean about what they really mean
- No god in the details
- A new film threatens to explode Christianity�s central myth. Director Brian Flemming asks what if Jesus didn�t exist
- Who wears the frocks?
- Raffaella Malaguti reports on the latest challenge to the Vatican boys' club
- Game theory
- Peter Cave tries some thought experiments
- Turn me on, dead man
- What do the Beatles, the Virgin Mary, Jesus, Patricia Arquette and Michael Keaton have in common, asks Michael Shermer
- Believe it or not
- David Pollock asks why the government is reluctant to grant humanists their human rights
- Aura Bore
- Laurie Taylor wonders what you do when friends go freaky
Features
- New Labour
- Do you have a smile in your voice, a flexible attitude and the ability to negotiate? If so, warns Ewart Keep, you could be part of a growing workforce that is skilled without necessarily being able to do anything
- Serious intent: Laurie Taylor interviews Isabel Hilton
- Acclaimed journalist Isabel Hilton talks to Laurie Taylor about China, democracy, dictatorships and her passion to represent those at the bottom of the heap
- Remarkable things
- How should sociology respond to a globalised world? Les Back recommends a return to the link between individual stories and the bigger picture
- God's my big homie
- Caspar Melville reports on the resurrection of religion in black popular music
- Trapped by Buddha
- It's not just China that is preventing the emergence of a modern Tibet. Western romantic delusions are just as stifling, argues novelist Jamyang Norbu
Culture
- Coming out on top
- With nipple counts at an all�time high, inflated sales of silicon implants, and the relentless rise of topless celebrities, Sally Feldman puzzles over the sexual politics of breasts
- From the front
- Dorothy Rowe is touched by messages from the past
- Coming home
- Judi Herman finds that love is thicker than blood
- Thinking aloud
- Mark Pagel on what makes scientists tick
- Born to be mild
- Stanley Middleton's new novel fails to live up to its title says Chris Paling
- Dem bones
- Brenda Maddox on a remarkable pioneer of paleontology
- Matinee idylls
- Andrew Tudor samples this summer�s holiday blockbusters
Book Reviews
- Off the Boil
- Sally Feldman chokes on her (Joyce Carol) Oates