JANUARY & FEBRUARY 2012

REGULARS 5 Editorial OhmyAmerica 6 Godless globe 9 Witness FrederikStjernfelt,

LyndseyJones,Padraig Reidy,MyraZepf 12 Yours sceptically Readers’

letters 49 Chris Maslanka’s Quiz 50 Endgame Laurie Taylor talks sadly to himself

FEATURES 14 In God they trust Abby

Ohlheiser assesses the Republican presidential hopefuls 20 Return of the moral minority Evangelists are enjoying a TV revival, finds Francis Beckett 23 A time to sow Paul Sims talks to veteran Middle East watcher Fuad Nahdi about the future of the Arab Spring 26 D’oh my God Andrew

Mueller on faith in The Simpsons 28 Burden of proof Is evidence-based policy a realistic expectation? asks Richard Wilson 33 Inside the heresy files

Cullen Murphy on how the Inquisition ignited the modern police state 36 Heavenly bodies

Dieting can harm your humanism, argues Sally Feldman 38 Obscure charms

Medicine and superstition at the Wellcome Collection 40 Memory loss Holocaust history is under attack in Hungary, finds Thomas Land 42 A tale of two Dickens

Claire Tomalin tells Matthew Adams about the author’s conflicted life

[14]

The Republicans vying for the God ’n’ Guns vote

[42]

Best of men, worst of men

COLUMNS

13 Q&A: Andy Hamilton The comedian and writer on his sympathy for the Devil 19 Kitty Ferguson In praise of

Stephen Hawking 22 Chown’s Cosmos Jupiter’s volcanic moon, Io 32 Jamila Bey Black, female and atheist

BOOK REVIEWS

44 Michael Binyon revisits Cold

War brinksmanship 45 Poem Martin Harrison 46 Natalie Haynes enjoys a

Nigerian travelogue 46 Owen Jones explores redneck

America 48 Adam Rutherford tires of Zombie creationist arguments 48 Nina Power puzzles over a heavyweight intellectual partnership

[26]

D’oh my God: Religion in The Simpsons

The Simpsons

[38]

[38]

Saints, charms and folklore