SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER 2013

REGULARS

5 Editorial Goodbye to all this 6 Godless globe 9 Witness Daniel Trilling,

Conor Gearty, Paul Sims 47 Chris Maslanka’s Quiz 50 Endgame Laurie Taylor’s taken for a sucker

FEATURES

12 Q&A: Derek Landy Talking skeleton detectives, vampires and Buffy with the bestselling author 14 Oh, happy day Sally

Feldman on a great day for humanist weddings 16 Mr Magic AL Kennedy marvels at the showmanship of Derren Brown 20 Mind warp

Neuromyths have no place in the classroom, says James Gray 23 Misery, kindness & fun

Bertrand Russell was a great guide to the complexities of life, says Alan Ryan 26 Reasons to be cheerful

Myra Zepf’s top ten best things about being godless 28 The rise of public man

Michael Sandel is the moral philospher every politician wants to cosy up to. JP O’Malley finds out why 32 Justice California-style Dave Belden reports on the restorative justice revolution sweeping the US 36 Cartoon cult Unimpressed by the religions on offer, we’ve started our own. Words by Sam Mills, pictures by Ralph Steadman 38 Wrong in the right way Jonathan Rée celebrates the moral vision of Ronald Dworkin

[16]

The joy of flimflam

[32]

Poetic justice

41 A sympathetic gaze

George Eliot’s mature atheism is an inspiration, says Sarah Ditum

COLUMNS

19 Opinion: Geoff Kendall

Together we can save the world. Maybe. 31 Chown’s Cosmos The death of the Milky Way

BOOK REVIEWS

44 Raymond Tallis on the pretensions of Patricia Churchland 46 Nausikaa El-Mecky on the ugliness of the Renaissance 46 Craig Purshouse on

Margaret Atwood’s sci-fi 48 Andrew Mueller runs the

Fox mole to ground 49 Toby Lichtig on Eimear

McBride’s startling debut novel

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The ten best things about being godless

[14]

A happy day... for humanist weddings

SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2013 New Humanist 3