Summary
Title: Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety
Author: Wendy Kaminer
Publisher: Vintage Books
ISBN: 9780679758860
Pro:
• Covers religious and paranormal irrationalism
• Covers political issues like church/state separation
• Specific Critiques of New Age beliefs
Con:
• None
Description:
• Covers the wide variety of irrationalism in society
• Detailed critique of some of the most recent New Age ideas
• Emphasizes the importance of questioning and skepticism
Book Review
As the author of several previous books and contributor to several national magazines, Wendy Kaminer has been too often a unique voice in questioning social trends in deferring to religion. Usually this involves giving special privileges to religion which are denied to everything else and in this context it means that critiques of organized religion are suppressed while critiques of fringe beliefs are permitted. What Kaminer thus finds is that basically the same critiques are treated differently depending on whether they are aimed at traditional religion or at New Age beliefs about crystals, but of course from the perspective of outsiders none of it is any more justified than the rest.
Kaminer's book Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety combines critiques of religion, critiques of the paranormal, and critiques of other modern myths to create an overall indictment of irrationalism in America today. She 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 interesting aspect of the book is that it skeptically and critically looks at New Age ideas at all.
Although skepticism of the paranormal is more accepted than skepticism of religion, it's still the case that criticism of the New Age movement tends 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. It's common to see religious believers complain about criticism or even just alternative ideas by saying that it "hurts" their religious sensibilities, as if the importance of their beliefs to them should make those beliefs off-limits to any negative reactions.
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. So no matter what you or I believe and no matter how irrational it may happen to be, it's not necessarily right or appropriate for anyone else to publicly attack or even just criticize it.
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. What this means is that you can privately hold whatever irrational beliefs you want to and expect to keep it all private, but as soon as you make the choice to take those beliefs public, and especially if you try to use those beliefs as reasons for particular public policies, then you necessarily accept whatever public criticism, dissent, disagreement, and even derision that might come alone.
The path for skeptics should be clear: we should energetically 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 and challenging these beliefs 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. There is something on nearly ever page, and often many important passages on any one page. Kaminer is not just dealing with an important topic, but she does so with wit and insight that is rare among even the best skeptical authors. I can, without equivocation, say that it is a must-have for anyone interested in skepticism, pop-culture, and religion.
