<DIV><p>In the new mega-anthology from best-selling editor Russ Kick, more than fifty writers, reporters, and researchers invade the inner sanctum for an unrestrained look at the wild and wooly world of organized belief.</p><p> <B>Richard Dawkins</B> shows us the strange, scary properties of religion; <B>Neil Gaiman</B> turns a biblical atrocity story into a comic (that almost sent a publisher to prison); <B>Erik Davis</B> looks at what happens when religion and California collide; <B>Mike Dash</B> eyes stigmatics; <B>Douglas Rushkoff</B> exposes the trouble with Judaism; <B>Paul Krassner</B> reveals his “Confessions of an Atheist”; and best-selling lexicographer <B>Jonathon Green</B> interprets the language of religious prejudice.</p><p>Among the dozens of other articles and essays, you'll find: a sweeping look at classical composers and Great American Songbook writers who were unbelievers, such as <B>Irving Berlin</B>, creator of “God Bless America”; the definitive explanation of why America is not a Christian nation; the bizarre, Catholic-fundamentalist books by Mel Gibson's father; eye-popping photos of bizarre religious objects and ceremonies, including snake-handlers and pot-smoking children; the thinly veiled anti-Semitism in the <I>Left Behind</I> novels; an extract from the rare, suppressed book <I>The Sex Life of Brigham Young</I>; and rarely seen anti-religious writings from <B>Mark Twain</B> and <B>H.G. Wells</B>.</p><p>Further topics include exorcisms, religious curses, Wicca, the Church of John Coltrane, crimes by clergy, death without God, Christian sex manuals, the “ex-gay” movement, failed prophecies, bizarre theology, religious bowling, atheist rock and roll, “how to be a good Christian,” an entertaining look at the best (and worst) books on religion, and much more.</p></DIV>