For anyone doubting Dawkins’ assertion that religion has a kind of aura around it that makes criticism publicly unacceptable, I think the following book is worth a look: Wendy Kaminer’s Sleeping With Extra-Terrestrials. She’s more patient and even polite about religion in many ways, but her analysis is supported by all kinds of facts and details, and with a general mastery of the subject, especially in the American context. It’s nothing much that I didn’t know already, but I’m enjoying seeing it all laid out so clearly and strongly that everything else I’m reading has been set aside for the moment.