Humanism is the philosophy that you should be a good guest at the dinner table of life.

Christian churches and Muslim groups have no more right to have their say than women's institutes or trades unions. The government has actively encouraged faith-based education, and therefore given a megaphone to religious voices and fundamentalists.

Religion and science have a common ancestor - ignorance.

Look at the blogosphere - the biggest lavatory wall in the universe, a palimpsest of graffiti and execration.

The media no longer hesitate to whip up lurid anxieties in order to increase sales, in the process undermining social confidence and multiplying fears.

If there is anything worth fearing in the world, it is living in such a way that gives one cause for regret in the end.

Nothing is truly unnatural, because everything that exists, including human intelligence, is a product of nature. If human intelligence can devise ways for the genes from two men to result in a child, their doing so is an entirely natural event.