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  • Book review: Why Genes are not Selfish and People are Nice by Colin Tudge

    Colin Tudge's attempt to overturn "dangerous" neo-Darwin materialism fails spectacularly, says Craig Purshouse

  • Introducing the Rationalists’ Parliament

    With its focus on reason and evidence, our parallel assembly goes deeper than jeering and groupthink, says Adam Smith

  • The rationalist way of death

    Given that it has historically been annexed by religion, how should the non-believer mark death? Jonathan Rée dons his weeds and joins the procession. Illustration Jessica Chandler

  • Time to rethink physics?

    In his new book the theoretical physicist Lee Smolin calls for a major shift in the discipline and a recognition that rather than a relative value or an effect of space, time is real and fundamental. Marcus Chown explains

  • Tech heretic

    Jaron Lanier is a digital pioneer who has collaborated with Microsoft and Google. So why is he warning that technology is making us dependent and redundant? JP O’Malley logs on

  • Gagging for God

    The capitulation of the Danish left drew Frederik Stjernfelt into the battle to defend free speech. A string of recent attacks have convinced him that it’s a battle that is far from won

  • Video: "Learning about philosophy is learning about yourself", Jonathan Rée on Ludwig Wittgenstein

    In this video from the How The LIght Gets In festival in Hay-on-Whye, 2012, philosopher and critic Jonathan Rée talks brilliantly about the life and thought of the former aeronautical engineer and one of the richest men in Europe, Ludwig Wittengenstein

  • What is at the end of the tunnel?

    The Irreducible Mind by Edward and Emily Kelly lends scientific credibility to the claim that near death experiences prove the existence of an immaterial soul. But does it stand up to scrutiny? Dale DeBakcsy looks for light at the end of the tunnel

  • RA Podcast March 2013

    The latest RA Podcast features Alom Shaha on Islam's evolution problem, Jim Al-Khalili on a new approach to religious debate, Chris Stedman on the merits of interfaith, and Stewart Lee on the things parents do to get their darlings into school

  • Beyond black and white

    Are religion and humanism really opposites, as AC Grayling suggests in his new book? Tony McKenna sees some grey areas