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.
Ideas
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
Saving our universities? New Humanist interviews AC Grayling
As AC Grayling’s New College of the Humanities enrols its first intake, Caspar Melville asks our most prominent humanist what prompted his most controversial venture
Dear atheists…
Francis Spufford issues a challenge to non-believers
Science needs philosophy
The fad for using science to explain everything is misguided and dangerous, says Massimo Pigliucci
The cult of science
In his latest book the great iconoclast Bruno Latour turns his gaze on religious belief, and unbelief, and argues that there is less difference between science and religion than atheists…
Hope against hope
One of the selling points of religion is that it offers hope in a heartless world. Does that mean those without religion are also without hope? Julian Baggini looks on…
Book review: The Communist Manifesto
Francis Beckett savours a new edition of a classic
Against the credulous
Modern spin and marketing have made us too easy to fool. It's time to get real, argues Eliane Glaser