Volume 123 Issue 5 September/October 2008

Editorial: Something to believe in: With so much to choose from, what do you believe in?

Features

Without illusions: Doug Ireland welcomes a passionate and practical approach to secularism
Speak up: Why do women screech when men shout? Sally Feldman explores the sexual politics of the voice
Unmasked: Paul Sims finds out what’s behind the anarchic anti-cult group Anonymous
Origin of the specious: AC Grayling dissects a new defence of Intelligent Design
'Follow God, work & provoke no one': That’s the philosophy of a unique Muslim sect. Richard Dowden traces its spread across the diaspora
Fathers under fire: Elizabeth Wilson on the new scapegoats
How do I look?: Seeing is believing, it is said. But, asks Richard Gregory, could it be the other way round?
Faith healers: Peace through religious understanding is an admirable goal, argues Edna Fernandes. But who should be paying for it?
What lies beneath: Even godless humanism needs a sense of the spiritual, says Paul Heelas

Sex appeal: America’s Religious Right has devised a seductive new recruitment strategy, reveals Dagmar Herzog

Endgame: Walk on by: Laurie Taylor tries a bit of continental drift
Diary: Heard the one about the ex-Muslim?: It's fine to laugh at religion, just don't pander to the knee-jerk bigots, says Nick Doody

The Ten Commandments: In his new book, New Humanist cartoonist Martin Rowson sums up the history, and future, of the world in one word
Cold flesh: From interior designer to poet of the grotesque – Owen Hatherley traces the evolution of a tortured artistic humanist

God's Executioner by Micheál Ó Siochrú: Stephen Howe on a new history of Cromwell's Irish adventure
The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd: Philip Womack wonders why Peter Ackroyd has meddled with a classic
Manifestos for the 21st Century: Caroline Moorehead reviews an impressive new series on censorship
Stop Me If You've Heard This by Jim Holt: Natalie Haynes is not amused by a new study of humour
The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life by Austin Dacey: Jenny Bunker is at ease with a secular conscience