Andrew: Several folks have questioned my use of the word “vast” to describe the numbers of people who simultaneously ridicule traditional religion as superstition while actually holding superstitious beliefs. I’m going to stick with the word vast, but I think some people are on more solid footing when they object that these people are part of the “left.” Here we have a problem with the language. I say these people are on the left because they stand opposed to those everyone has no problem calling the right: traditionalists, devout Christians, et al. In the red-vs-blue shorthand we use to describe the culture war there are two groups–even though we all know this is absurdly reductionist. But in that dualistic system, the people I describe are certainly on the left, for want of a better word.

Now, as for the vast part, where to begin? Hollywood? All over the place, Madonna, Oliver Stone, Shirley MacLaine come immediately to mind (let’s not even start with the Scientologists). But so does a lot of Hollywood’s product. Traditional religion is often treated as a farce, but ghosts and goblins are all about. I’m a huge fan of Joss Whedon’s, but he has some pretty serious skepticism toward religion, but not to the supernatural. I don’t want to send you into a blind rage by addressing the X-Files. On college campuses, it’s even more obvious. Feminists? Environmentalists? There the list gets very long. Deep ecologists, Gaia types, Wiccans may not all pose as atheists, but one rarely reads denunciations of this crowd from the loudest atheistic critics of traditional religion. What I really, really reccomend is that you check out the magazine rack at Whole Foods some time. You’ll see how vast this market is.

But perhaps the best evidence is from the dozens of readers who wrote me to say it sounded like I was talking about their sister or cubicle partner.

Anyway, I could go on because I think this is a great topic. But I’ve got a deadline to get to.