New Humanist: Ideas for godless people
Cover of New Humanist Volume 121 Issue 4 July/August 2006

Volume 121 Issue 4 July/August 2006

Editorial: One year on
I became editor of New Humanist a year ago, just as religious fundamentalism was making its remorseless march to the centre of the global agenda.

Cover Story

Castro at 80
Fidel Castro's reign over Cuba has been characterised by conservatism and authoritarianism, says Isabella Thomas

Columns

Goodbye to all that
Michael Bywater misses his ivory tower
Wishful thinking
Humanists should be careful not to confuse what ought and what is, says Jeremy Stangroom
Reasonable bounds
Continuing our series reclaiming thinkers for humanism, AC Grayling celebrates Immanuel Kant
God in the gutter
Douglas Rushkoff strips the Bible back to basics
Sex and the stupid girl
Liz Funk on the explosion of America’s raunch culture
Suicide sisters
How far would you go to help a friend? Jenni Murray enters into a very final pact
Hot flushes
Laurie Taylor remembers a bad period
Happy ever after
What effect will civil partnershipshave on same sex couples? Carol Smart reports on her recent study

Features

Alpha male
Michael Marsden goes in search of the Holy Spirit
Fiendish summer quiz
Win a host of prizes
Sandals and spooks
Why did the British secret services take such a keen interest in the activities of folk icon Ewan MacColl? Ken Hunt digs in the archives
Don't look back
Is obsession with wrongs of the past threatening our commitment to the future, asks Stan Cohen
'Moscow isn't Sodom'
Merlin Holland joins the first Gay Pride march in the Russian capital

Culture

Banged up
Erwin James on a remarkable book written from behind bars
Capital stuff
Francis Wheen brings the same panache to his new book that he brought to his excellent biography of Mar, says Toby Saul
Five thousand years of bitterness
Sally Feldman on the dazzling flaws of a Jewish chronicle
Supreme being
Ashley Kahn on Coltrane's spiritual journey
Hopeless romantics
Lynda Nead takes in the National Gallery’'s new show
Fairy story
Martina Evans reviews a new book about Bridget Cleary who was burned as a witch just over a century ago
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