Volume 122 Issue 4 July/August 2007

Editorial: Forget the carping, the special pleading and the moans of faith groups. Reason, free thinking and a sense of humour do the job

Cover Stories

Charity Balls: Interview with Richard Curtis: From Blackadder to Four Weddings and a Funeral Richard Curtis has made millions out of making us laugh. He tells Laurie Taylor why comedy has a duty to bring relief

Thinker: Jean Meslier: Colin Brewer on Jean Meslier, a priest who left a deathbed bombshell
End Game: . . .said Alice: Laurie Taylor finds a playmate
Diary: Soft porn, sluttish brides and honour killings. Another routine week for feminist journalist Natalie Haynes

Through the looking glass: AC Grayling finds that in the work of leading philosopher John Gray, everything is the wrong way round and upside down
Clouded judgement: Its not just the flickering flames, the calm and cool that humanists are giving up, argues Sally Feldman. It's a precious part of themselves
High Flyer: Richard Rorty obituary: Danny Postel remembers the daring philosophy of Richard Rorty, who died in June 2007
Atheism à la mode: What is the outspoken French atheist philosopher Michel Onfray really saying? Caspar Melville  meets him and canvases some expert opinion.
Hollow Land: The apparently random patchwork of settlement in the occupied West Bank in fact reveals a deliberate plan of colonisation and control, reports Daniel Miller
Irish stew: In the fledgling Stormont democracy, discovers Newton Emerson, some are more equal than others
Bosphorus Straits: Ahead of a critical election columnist Ahmet Altan warns that his country’s current political crisis could have fateful consequences for us all

Springtime for Hitler: The hidden art of the Third Reich, argues Roger Griffin, betrays uncomfortable links with more radical modernism

Jesus my boyfriend: Comedian Christina Martin was all set for her big break - an appearance on the syndicated Paramount Comedy hour. Then she committed an unpardonable offence

Holy Warriors: A journey into the heart of Indian fundamentalism by Edna Fernandes: Meera Nanda on India's fundamentalist mix
The Condor's Head by Ferdinand Mount: Philip Womack enjoys a meeting of old and new worlds
Have a Nice Doomsday by Nicholas Guyatt: Toby Saul doubts the power of the American end-timers
The Threat to Reason by Dan Hind: Jonathan Derbyshire is unthreatened by an enlightenment sceptic
Faust in Copenhagen by Gino Segrè: Graham Farmelo finds that even the greats of physics enjoyed larking about