RATIONALIST a s s o c i a t i o n
RATIONALIST a s s o c i a t i o n
JULY & AUGUST 2013 VOLUME 128 No4
RATIONALIST a s s o c i a t i o n
EDITORIAL Editor Caspar Melville News Editor Paul Sims Editorial Intern Anna Vesterinen Commissioning Editor Laurie Taylor Associate Editor Sally Feldman Cartoons Editor Judy Walker Designer Nick McKay COVER Illustration by Mark Poutenis www.markpoutenis.com Website www.rationalist.org.uk
RATIONALIST a s s o c i a t i o n
RATIONALIST a s s o c i a t i o n
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CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE
FRANCIS SPUFFORD is an award-winning author whose books include Back Room Boys: The Secret Return of the British Boffin, Red Plenty and Unapologetic. On page 14 he argues that Iain MBanks should be considered one of our greatest ever science fiction writers.
TERRI MURRAY is an author and recovering Catholic. She has taught A-Level philosophy at Hampstead College of Fine Arts &Humanities in London for ten years. On page 32 she brings some clear thinking to the increasingly muddled debate over the burqa.
4 New Humanist JULY & AUGUST 2013
KENAN MALIK is a writer and broacaster who writes widely on culture, politics and science. His history of moral thought will be published in April 2014. For this issue he travelled to Brussels to meet the renowned historian of the Enlightenment Jonathan Israel (page 24).
DAVID WALTNER-TOEWS is a veterinarian, epidemiologist, scientist and popular author who specialises in diseases other animals share with people. On page 22 he reveals five things he learnt about poo, researching his latest book The Origin of Feces.
ISABELL ZIPFELL is a photographer specialising in social and environmental issues. Before becoming a photographer she translated screenplays. Her photographs of the people who live on top of the Jharia coalfields in India are on page 34. Isabell lives in Berlin.
