| "The young man boards the bus as it leaves the terminal. He wears an overcoat. Beneath his overcoat, he is wearing a bomb. His pockets are filled with nails, ball bearings, and rat poison..." (from the first line) THIS IMPORTANT AND TIMELY BOOK delivers a startling analysis of the clash of faith and reason in today's world. Harris offers a vivid historical tour of mankind's willingness to suspend reason in favor of religious beliefs, even when those beliefs are used to justify harmful behavior and sometimes heinous crimes. He asserts that in the shadow of weapons of mass destruction, we can no longer tolerate views that pit one true god against another. Most controversially, he argues that we cannot afford moderate lip service to religion--an accommodation that only blinds us to the real perils of fundamentalism. While warning against the encroachment of organized religion into world politics, Harris also draws on new evidence from neuroscience and insights from philosophy to explore spirituality as a biological, brain-based need. He calls on us to invoke that need in taking a secular humanistic approach to solving the problems of this world.
Annotation:
In a post-9/11 polemic, Sam Harris takes an absolutist stand against religion. Blind faith, fundamentalism, and theocracy are linked, and are anathema to him. Harris cites what he sees as the violence-drenched holy texts of major religions to underscore the connections between religion and terror. Criticizing both Islam and Christianity throughout, Harris would relegate current religion to the same status as we now view, for example, the Roman gods. He would replace religion with reason, and he would turn to Eastern thought for a more fully developed spirituality. Addressing objections from those who favor a "moderate religion" or religion when separated from state, he says this is mere accommodation. Acknowledging that acts of charity currently done in the name of religion have a positive end, he says that in a world of reason and ethics these would still take place. Outrageous at first, Harris builds his case for, as he says, the end of faith and the future of reason.
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PraiseNew York Times Book Review
"THE END OF FAITH articulates the dangers and absurdities of organized religion so fiercely and so fearlessly that I felt relieved as I read it, vindicated, almost personally understood....This is an important book, on a topic that, for all its inherent difficulty and divisiveness, should not be shielded from the crucible of human reason." - Natalie Angier 09/05/2004 |
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