Stargazer
David Wootton, author of a new biography, uncovers evidence that Galileo really was a heretic
Faith & Religion
There will be blood
Butchery is always a messy business, but is religiously inspired ritual slaughter really worse than other methods? Physiologist Harold Hillman dissects the evidence
Q&A: Marilynne Robinson
She has won the Pulitzer and Orange prizes for her fiction, and been called the greatest writer of prose in the English language. With her new book she enters the…
It’s all just words
Blasphemer, failure, hypocrite, comedian – Stewart Lee tells Caspar Melville why he’s so offensive
An audience with the Pope
If you were invited to address Benedict XVI during his UK visit, what would you say to him? Richard Dawkins, Philip Pullman, Claire Rayner, Ben Goldacre and many more take…
Should Britain ban the burqa?
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Kenan Malik debate whether the UK should follow the French
Warm welcome
We plan to make the Pope’s visit a most uncomfortable experience, says Keith Porteous Wood
Film review: Lourdes
Behind its restrained seriousness, this dramatisation of a disabled woman's pilgrimage has a vicious sense of humour, says Fred Rowson
Book Review: Secret Affairs by Mark Curtis
Did the British government collude with terrorists? Richard Wilson finds out
Fun-loving Muslims
Islamic dating sites reveal Muslims to be just as shallow as everyone else, says Theodore Dalrymple