When debate with the religious is pointless
Unlike some atheists, I think that debate between the faithful and faithless can be fruitful. But after appearing at an event alongside a pair of Muslim speakers last week, I'm…
Ideas
Book review: How to Create the Perfect Wife
Sarah Ditum on the incredible true story of Thomas Day, the 18th-century Englishman who tried to use the ideas of the Enlightenment to mould his ideal bride
Darkness at noon, enlightenment at midnight
A brief conversation between two of the 20th centuries most vibrant minds stayed with Bryan Hamlin for over 40 years, but it is only now that it starts to make…
The joy of Essex
You may have thought that the English county of Essex was all dodgy geezers, fake-tan and vajazzles. But Jonathan Meades, whose latest telly-essay with director-photographer Francis Hanly is broadcast on…
Book review: Against Fairness by Stephen Asma
Stephen Asma has a fair old stab at writing a book about fairness but, to be fair, its fairly awful, says Craig Purshouse
A conversation with Jonathan Miller: Laurie Taylor talks to the President of the Rationalist Association
Laurie Taylor gets up close and personal with Britain’s leading public intellectual
Talking ’bout a revolution
With the whiff of rebellion again in the air, the work of Victor Serge is being rediscovered. Not before time, says Owen Hatherley
Redrawing the lines
Sociologist Linda Woodhead has just finished a five-year government-funded academic project mapping religion in society. She argues that religion is not disappearing but transforming. Caspar Melville assesses her evidence.
Book review: You must change your life by Peter Sloterdijk
Jonathan Rée enjoys the latest performance by 'the Lady Gaga of philosophy'
Unwrapping the Mummy’s Curse
What lies behind the tenacious myth of the Pharaohs’ revenge? Roger Luckhurst lifts the lid