How do we explain the success of crazy ideas like those in The Da Vinci Code?

I get so frustrated at rational people who end up seriously considering the goofy claims of people like Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code. I'm starting a book by a noted scholar, Ben Witherington (What Have They Done With Jesus?). In the early pages he deals with this same issue--why are we so easily taken in by radical claims about Jesus and the New Testament? I'm including his response here. After I've read more of this book, I hope to use later blogs to explore some of his points about this ongoing distortion of Jesus and the early church.

What is there about American culture that makes normally rational people extremely gullible about sensational claims about Jesus? For one thing, our society is biblically illiterate and, therefore, swallows almost any wild theory about Jesus. In addition, Americans today are burned out and skeptical of anyone offering traditional answers; they would rather listen to new theories even if there's no evidence behind them. Furthermore, our commercial-based society says that if something is new it must be better. One other reason has to do with fundamentalists on television where they preen and make foolish pronouncements, causing scholars to go crazy and to react by presenting a Christianity which is completely different. A fifth reason deals with scholars who want to win praise from fellow scholars by appearing to be mavericks; a good way for them to do this is to discount or discredit much of the traditional view of Jesus or the New Testament. One final reason deals with presuppositions that many modern scholars, including historians, use to shape their views of Jesus. For example, some of these people assume that miracles cannot happen and therefore do not happen. They have not proved this; they merely assert this to be true.