New Humanist Update

So Charles Darwin has risen from the dead, and the first thing he does (perhaps after a nice warm shower) is sit down to dinner with four scientific experts to discuss how his theory has evolved while he's been having the big sleep. His guests are geneticist Steve Jones, historian John van Wyhe, biologist Jerry Coyne and Guardian science correspondent James Randerson. What would they ask him, what would they tell him, and what would they bring him?

All the answers are there in Dinner with Darwin, our January/February cover story.

Our editor Caspar Melville will be discussing Dinner with Darwin with James Randerson on this Friday's Guardian science podcast, so look out for that

As part of our natural history special, Laurie Taylor went to see broadcasting legend David Attenborough to discuss his own life on Earth. While Attenborough is keen to stress that he is not a scientist – "I have made no discoveries" – Laurie found that even his wonderful documentaries fail to do justice to his considerable scientific and moral intelligence.

David Belden reports on the fight being waged by Mikey Weinstein – founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation – to stop what he sees as "an absolute fundamentalist Christianisation – a Talibanisation – of the US Marine Corps, Army, Navy and Air Force". Frightening stuff.

An important piece from Dave Rich, who looks at the UK government's strategy for tackling the rise of extremism in Muslim communities. He shows how they are finally getting things right following years of dealing with the Islamists in the Muslim Council of Britain.

Filmmaker Ben Anthony describes his time with the Strong City cult of New Mexico in the days leading up to the "apocalypse" predicted by their "messiah" Wayne Bent. Ben's recent Channel 4 documentary The End of the World Cult enraged Bent, who felt he had been misrepresented. In fact, he was so annoyed that he chose to flood the New Humanist blog with comments.

As if all of the above wasn't enough, the January/February issue also features Sally Feldman wondering what's wrong with a little luxury, John Clark asking if "stand-up philosopher" Slavoj Žižek is serious, Elizabeth Wilson defending militant atheism, Stan Cohen asking when torture became acceptable, and Stein Ringen saying true freedom requires faith. Not to mention Peter Hamilton celebrating the work of photographers EO Hoppé and Don McCullin, Paul Bishop reassessing Carl Jung, Laurie Taylor offering a shoulder to cry on, and historian Charles Freeman on how a Roman emperor robbed Christianity of its internal debate.

There is a fantastic set of book reviews in the new issue: AC Grayling looks at an attack on internet Counterknowledge by Damian Thomson. Incidentally, Thomson is also editor of the Catholic Herald which, as Grayling points out, may pose problems for someone attempting to debunk irrational nonsense.

Two novels are reviewed – Philip Womack enjoys Death at Intervals, the latest from Portuguese Nobel Laureate José Saramago, while Natalie Haynes is less impressed by Alain Mabanckou's African Psycho.

Meanwhile, Michael Bywater tackles Alec Wilkinson's The Happiest Man in the World, the amazing true story of Poppa Neutrino – a man who sailed across the Atlantic on a raft, defeated an octopus, devised a revolutionary American football play and doused himself in perfume when he couldn't bathe.

And finally, Ken Worpole reviews a reissue of Gillian Darley's Villages of Vision: A Study of Strange Utopias, and Bill Thompson admires Nicholas Carr's The Big Switch, which assesses the digital revolution.

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