JANUARY & FEBRUARY 2013

REGULARS

5 Editorial Woman trouble 6 Godless globe 9 Witness Richard Wilson, Michael Bywater, Salil

Tripathi 12 Yours sceptically Letters 49 Chris Maslanka’s Quiz 50 Endgame Laurie Taylor is beyond the fringe

FEATURES

13 Body scam Ditch the detox and beware of the get-fitquick hype this New Year, warns Sarah Ditum 16 Standing up to the miracle mongers Sanal Edamaruku faces jail in India for exposing the science behind miracles. He talks exclusively to Paul Sims 18 New faces The digital switchover has ushered in a new era for televangelism. James Gray visits God TV 2.0 22 Mission improbable

Mormonism plus South Park equals box office gold. Natalie Haynes previews the West End’s latest sell-out musical The Book of Mormon 24 Nothing more than feelings In an article for New Humanist Francis Spufford made the case for religious meaning. Caspar Melville met him to put the case to the test 28 Mussel-shells, corncobs and the Sears catalogue In the days before toilet paper what were the devout to do? Richard Smyth on an absorbing history 32 Thirty-one arguments against gay marriage (and why they’re all wrong) Jason Wakefield’s handy guide to beating the homophobes

[22]

Mission improbable Mormons take the West End

[18]

God TV gets a makeover

36 The conversation Jonathan Miller and Laurie

Taylor talk sea urchins, causality and the vacuity of sunsets 40 Masters of the universe What have black holes ever done for us? asks Marcus Chown 43 Q&A Soul man Labi Siffre

COLUMNS

31 Chown’s Cosmos Bad moon rising

BOOK REVIEWS

44 Jonathan Rée on the greatest living writer of English prose 46 Andrew Mueller enjoys Mary

Whitehouse’s failure 47 Francis Beckett gets Hacked

Off 48 Craig Purshouse is unconvinced by the case against fairness 48 Warren Ellis enjoys a ripping rewrite of a biblical myth

[ 36 ]

Listening to Jonathan Miller

[43]LabiSiffrestanding strong

JANUARY FEBRUARY 2013 New Humanist 3