New Humanist Update

Christmas comes early – Nine Lessons on sale now

This year's Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People shows are now on sale, with confirmed performers so far including Brian Cox, Simon Singh, Chris Addison, Jo Neary, Ben Goldacre, Josie Long and Marcus Chow many many more names to follow, but if you wait to hear them you may miss out.

The shows are at the Bloomsbury Theatre from 16-18 December, and you can book online at the Bloomsbury website (or by calling 020 7388 8822). The 2008 and 2009 shows sold out very quickly, so book now to avoid disappointment.

July issue sneak peek: Jonathan Rée on William James

You may not have noticed this but over the past couple of year's philosopher and historian Jonathan Rée has been stealthily redefining humanism, in the pages of New Humanist, through a series of beautifully written portraits and reviews of figures like JS Mill, Isaiah Berlin, Hugh Trevor-Roper, Leszek Kowlakowski and Jürgen Habermas. Although every piece is specific and detailed, read as a series you can detect a strong argument for a new kind of engagement with religion which can credit its achievements, probe its fallacies and distinguish between it's varieties.

This week we publish Rée on William James the psychologist, philosopher, brother of Henry and author of The Varieties of Religious Experience. This piece is a kind of culmination of the ones cited above, almost a manifesto for a new way of doing humanism.

Poll: are secular free schools a good idea?

In a live webchat on the Mumsnet site, Richard Dawkins responded enthusiastically to a suggestion that atheists might take advantage of the proposed free schools system by setting up their own secular schools. Over at the New Humanist blog, we're asking whether people think this is a good idea – let us know what you think – vote in our poll.

Germany to win, says psychic octopus

With a German "psychic octopus" predicting a win for his home nation in Sunday's World Cup showdown against England, surely it's time for all English sceptics to get behind the cause?

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