Ray can get away with a lot of nonsense in his foreword, assuming it's only read by people who support his position. However, thanks to the NCSE and other bloggers, hopefully the scientific and educational communities will sit up and take notice of the blatant distortions and misrepresentations going on.

But when he's in dialogue with a proper scientist, then there's much less room to maneuver. Especially in print, as Gish Gallops are much harder to do when there's a paper trail.

Quick straw poll. You're going to bring out a new edition of "On The Origin of Species", but to differentiate it from all the other editions, and to give some background to the sociopolitical ramifications of the theories of natural selection & shared descent, it is decided to have a new foreword by a leading scholar in the field.

So - who do you pick?

I bloody love Christmas.

I once, as a plucky undergraduate, took part in a pantomime based on the Nativity story, up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne - the slogan on the t-shirts was the one above. And I think we all agreed on the sentiment. Although I preferred my one: "An eye for a why-aye leaves everyone blind drunk."

[As guitarist in the band, I was less enamoured with the mandatory wearing of antlers in the band pit; a sartorial albatross that continues to haunt me.]

So, that's why I followed the career path of the musician, rather than joke writer.

We’re a bit odd in the UK. Really.

Sometimes touted as one of the more secular of countries, we often lapse into woolly-minded relativistic thinking of the Terry Eagleton variety. And that’s fine, up to a point. I mean, if you’re not hurting anyone, who are we to cause a fuss?

But say you hurt someone because of it. What if your over-arching, bend-over-backwards-accommodation led to damage?

Would it be the preserve of a secular society, an indisputable right?