As many perhaps have already noticed by now, America has a buoyant love affair with all things irrational. This is certainly nothing new - it's been going on since last century at least. Some may find this to be quaint but unimportant to how society functions - but Wendy Kaminer does a fantastic job of arguing that wide spread irrationalism and uncritical acceptance of things like angels, aliens, gurus, etc. has serious repercussions for everyone.

As the author of several previous books and contributor to several national magazines, she has been too often a unique voice in questioning social trends in deferring to religion. As she relates, critiques of organized religion are suppressed while critiques of fringe beliefs are permitted. But from the perspective of outsiders, none of it is any more justified than the rest.

The book starts out with a very good analysis of church/state separation and the problems inherent with an over abundance of public piety - both that of traditional religions and New Age spirituality. She questions, quite well, the traditional and common association of religious devotion with morality.

But what is perhaps the most exciting aspect of the book is that it skeptically and critically looks at New Age ideas at all. Generally speaking, the only books I find criticizing New Age tend to come from fundamentalist Christians. Wendy Kaminer, however, is an equal-opportunity skeptic and casts her net very widely. She also addresses such issues as odd political policies, "crack babies," satanic ritual abuse, junk science, school vouchers, the physics of angels, and much more.

One of the criteria commonly used to evaluate the validity of a belief today tends to be simply the intensity of the belief itself. For some reason, strongly held beliefs are somehow regarded as being more likely to be true. This, in turn, makes it taboo to question believers - sometimes, it is even regarded as a form of abuse.

As Wendy Kaminer correctly points out, private religious beliefs are not automatically the business of everyone else. She herself admits to her own irrational beliefs right at the beginning of the book, for example the fact that she sees a homeopath. However, when such beliefs are made by believers into the foundation of public debates and the basis for public policies, then the public consequences of this inclination becomes everyone's concern.

The solution is clear: argue and debate with people who make impossible and irrational claims. No one who demands any sort of worship or veneration either for themselves or for someone else deserves automatic respect for those claims. It is important for everyone that such claims not go unchallenged. Only by directly questioning them can their fundamental irrationality be exposed.

I tend to mark important passages in the books I read for later references, but there are few books which I have marked nearly as much as this one. I can, without equivocation, say that it is a must-have for anyone interested in skepticism, pop-culture and religion.