Islam, Christianity and Judaism all define themselves through disgust of women's bodies.

The strongest predictor of unhappiness is anyone who has had a mental illness in the last 10 years. It is an even stronger predictor of unhappiness than poverty - which also ranks highly.

Thresholds of pain, indignity and incapacity are entirely personal.

This is indeed a clash of civilisations, not between Islam and Christendom but between reason and superstition.

But the single overwhelming reason why jails are bursting is longer sentences given for more crimes.

Nothing keeps people together like the exalted conviction that they alone are to be spared that eternal anguish of hell fire to which everyone else will be condemned.

People want the right to die at a time of their own choosing. Too many families have watched helplessly as a relative dies slowly, longing for death.