OK, I haven't read The Religious Case Against Belief, and after reading “Religion Is Poetry,” Steve Paulson’s Salon interview with its author James Carse, I know I will never read it — and I’m going to tell you why you shouldn’t either.
As you may have surmised from his book’s title, Carse thinks that particular beliefs about the nature and existence of gods, of good and evil, of the afterlife, or of the transcendent have no necessary connection to religion. Here are a pair of Qs&As from the interview:
Paulson: In your book, you say the only defining characteristic of religion is its longevity. It has to be around for a very long time to qualify as a religion.
Carse: Exactly. That's a very interesting contrast with belief systems. Belief systems have virtually no longevity. Think of Marxism. As a serious political policy, it lasted only about 70 or 80 years. Nazism only went 12 years. And they were intense, complete, comprehensive, passionately held beliefs. But they ran out very quickly. The reason the great religions don’t run out as quickly is that they’re able to maintain within themselves a deeper sense of the mystery, of the unknowable, of the unsayable, that keeps the religion alive and guarantees its vitality.
…
Paulson: You’re also suggesting that there’s no underlying unity that permeates all religions, that, in fact, they’re totally different from each other.
Carse:
I’m absolutely saying that.
So long-lasting incoherence — not a kind way of putting it, but I think a fair way — is for Paulson the defining characteristic of a great religion.
I’m not a believer (no spooks for me, big or little) nor do I describe myself as religious, so I don’t really have a dog in that fight. My hackles do stir a little at the ignorance and arrogance he displays — they do go together — when he claims that to be an atheist “is not to be stunned by the mystery of things or to walk around in wonder about the universe” and that “you have to be very clear about what god you're not believing in.” It’s when he implies that his trinity, that “deeper sense of the mystery, of the unknowable, of the unsayable,” should be my concern as a poet, since, after all, “religion is poetry,” that I start whistling for the pack.
And now, since long posts go unread and I have to get ready for a gig tonight, I‘ll leave you hanging.
2:49:43 PM 
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