The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason Reprint Edition

It is ironic that Sam Harris begins his book with a description of a young man bombing a bus in the heart of a city. Though published in 2004, the description appears to fit very well the recent London transit bombings. And this is precisely why this book demands our attention in this time of growing radical, religious fundamentalism of whatever variety.Sam Harris presents as a quiet, thoughtful, reflective person in television interviews and public presentations. His background is in philosophy and he is now completing his doctorate in neuro-science. He presents his analysis of religion in a deliberate, careful, rational manner. Yet the result is powerful.The book his two major themes. The first part is comprised of a critique of the irrational basis of religious faith and the often terrible consequences of these beliefs.This is not a tentative or hesitating criticism. At a time when the negative effects of religion and religious thinking are becoming increasingly visible, this book serves notice that making accommodations to religious thinking serves only to allow it to perpetuate its destructive influence. A belief that killing innocent people is responding to the will of one's God is not an idea to be given credence. And yet it flows directly from religious ideology and scripture.After surveying the current effects of religious beliefs, Harris then explores the nature of belief and how it relates to reason by providing an excellent review of the criteria and process of determining truth--or what in philosophy is called epistemology.Building on this analysis, he then reviews the effect of irrational belief in the history of Christianity with the Inquisition, the Cathar persecution, the witch hunts and finally the Holocaust. His point is that the moderation and toleration that is generally accepted today is not a result of the religious belief itself, but the modulating influence of the Enlightenment and the political separation of church and state that followed. This is followed by a detailed chapter analyzing the rise of radical and violent Islam. But lest we think we are immune from the effect of religious fundamentalism, he points out its current effect over issues such as the Ten Commandments controversy, the role of "faith-based" legislative efforts, the attempt to legislate what had previously been areas of private freedom, the movement to control embryonic stem cell research, and, of course, the abortion debate.Harris is particularly critical of what he calls the "myth of moderation" which flows from the postmodern viewpoint that all ideas are relative and none can be held truer or better than others.Moderates do not want to kill anyone in the name of God, but they want us to keep using the word "God" as though we know what we were talking about. And they do not want anything too critical said about people who really believe in the God of their fathers, because tolerance, perhaps above all else, is sacred. To speak plainly and truthfully about the state of the world--to say, for instance, that the Bible and Koran both contain mountains of life-destroying gibberish--is antithetical to tolerance as moderates currently conceive it. But we can no longer afford the luxury of such political correctness. We must finally recognize the price we are paying to maintain the iconography of our ignorance.The second part of the book is what makes it so significant This is not just another attack on the irrationality of religious faith. Harris acknowledges the legitimacy of the issues that religion attempts to address.What makes one person happier than another? Why is love more conducive to happiness than hate? Why do we generally prefer beauty to ugliness and order to chaos? Why does it feel so good to smile and laugh, and why do these shared experiences generally bring people closer together? Is the ego and illusion, and, if so, what implications does this have for human life? Is there life after death? These are ultimately questions for a mature science of the mind. If we ever develop such a science, most of our religious texts will be no more useful to mystics than they are now to astronomers.First he addresses ethics. What kind of ethics is possible without a faith in a supernatural God? One based in reason and that incorporates our growing knowledge of ourselves at the level of the brain. Where currently there is little consensus on moral issues, a sustained inquiry will force the convergence of various belief systems as it has done in other sciences. Moral relativism will no longer make sense ("we can't really judge the suicide bomber") because we will have developed verifiable criteria for moral and ethical behavior. Harris explores a number of contemporary issues from this perspective including terrorism, torture and pacifism. Furthermore, ethics is intimately connected with spirituality.In the next chapter he reframes the entire arena of spirituality from the religious to the scientific in the newly emerging field of consciousness studies. He is hesitant to use the words spirituality or mysticism because "neither word captures the reasonableness and profundity of the possibility that we must now consider: that there is a form of well-being that supersedes all others, indeed, that transcends the vagaries of experience itself". Specifically he refers to those traditions that identify spirituality with consciousness itself--with the observer of content rather than the content itself, which frees us from the vicissitudes of experience.Our spiritual traditions suggest that we have considerable room here to change our relationship to the contents of consciousness, and thereby to transform our experience of the world. Indeed, a vast literature on human spirituality attests to this. It is also clear that nothing need be believed on insufficient evidence for us to look in this possibility with an open mind.It is tempting to quote whole sections of this final chapter in which Harris rescues spirituality from religion. He explores the nature of consciousness and the various efforts within traditional religions to change the nature of consciousness through sustained introspection and the refinement of attention. He applies this to an analysis of the nature of the self--how it arises, what sustains it and how it can be transcended. He compares Eastern to Western philosophy and religion and questions why the Eastern analysis appears to be so much more sophisticated. And finally he describes meditation as a form of introspection in a section which can serve as a primer to meditative practice. All of this is done from an empirical perspective informed by modern studies of consciousness rather than from religious doctrine.The only lack in this book is the omission of the psychodynamic explanation for faith as originally proposed by Freud and more recently in the book The Psychological Roots of Religious Belief by M.D. Faber. Harris takes a more cultural and societal perspective.Few books describe more clearly the transition to a post-religious era and establish so clearly why it is of such importance.The days of our religious identities are clearly numbered. Whether the days of our civilization itself are numbered would seem to depend, rather too much, on how soon we realize this.

Courageous to write in this current atmosphere with rise of social conservatives based on "American Christian Values". If you are a Christian or Muslim. You will find this book difficult to stomach.In your face writing. Very direct and Blunt "Theology is an extension of human Ignorance", articulate and easy to read. States his position clearly and argues his point well. This is an attack on Monotheistic Religions - primarily Judeo-Christian religions (Islam, Judaism and Christianity) throughout the world. He makes a compelling case that we cannot grow into a more civilized society unless we shed our primitive and illogical believe systems.Highly recommended reading. I thought his analysis of our illogical religious views and related actions were right on, although I did not agree completely with him on all his points, it stimulated me to think and rethink some of my positions. If you have strong liberal or conservative views, your position will be challenged. He is an independent thinker and he is not going to feed you what you want to hear. This is what a good book should do. Important and relevant book and we need more books like this. Thus the five stars.Loaded with memorable quotes. I found myself re-reading sections and sentences and then close the book and stare in space as I comprehend a new idea.Some of the criticism here in Amazon review is fair. He does come across as an "atheist fundamentalist" as one reviewer wrote. Sam Harris rightly criticizes needless wars in the name of promoting religion, but he seems to promote wars in the name of fighting religion. I find this a bit hypocritical. I am not sure he is any better than the religious zealots he criticizes.Where I take exception and I feel his argument is the weakest, is his that He is too forgiving on the nature of "intent" and war itself as being justified to fight ignorance. In his view, we (the US) at war are more humane than Islam at war because of our "intent". We do not intend to kill innocents (they are collateral), where as Islamic people at war do. I think this is a narrow definition of intent and too forgiving. War by its nature is inhumane regardless of intent. And whether your loved one was killed intentionally or not, it doesn't make it any easier to accept or any more justifiable or make you more rightous. In addition, collateral damage is acceptable as long as it is the other side that is experiencing it. If for example, the Iraqi resistance was able to reach our shores and retaliate, and caused collateral damage of US citizens, then our view of the war and our interest in ending it sooner will rise. So what is the morality of the war? Also, if collateral damage is more humane than targeting civilians intentionally, then no civilian deaths is more humane than collateral damage. We should be rising to the occasion (or evolving) where wars are no longer legitimate. When the US is able to keep its citizenry detached from the reality of the war, it causes prolonged suffering of the other side. Also Harris does not address "cause and effect" and "ends justify the means" foreign policy. Don't we need to be held accountable for our actions? But the US has more at its disposal than military. It is the intent of the US to use its economic might to keep nations in poverty. He does not address this...Recommended reading "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"He leaves the impression that he only reason Islamic terrorists are attacking us is for religious reasons only and they are stuck in the 14th century beyond any sense of reasoning. The Koran is rooted in violence and justifies them attacking us - The infidels. As a result, the only remedy is to wage a war (with justifiable collateral damage) against Islam. I think he goes too far here. The Koran explains their hideous actions, but not their real motives. I think he underestimates there is a real war against the west based on what we do, not what we believe. After all, there are no terrorist attacks in South America, Canada, Japan, Eastern Europe or Australia. Yet they are all Infidels. The US and Western Europe have a long history in the Middle East of occupation, puppet governments, support for Israel, military intervention and oil interests that cannot be discounted as the reason. Now the war in Iraq has given the terrorist more reason to hate us. He gives the impression that the war on terror can only be won militarily through war. I agree the military has a role to play, but it is not enough. He does not adequately address other factors in combination with the military action; cultural change in the Middle East and a change in US foreign policy. Recommended Reading; Imperial Hubris Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror.In place of religion, Harris proposes a Buddhist view of life. He does not go into detail on Buddhism but touches briefly on some of its tenets with regard to reason, logic, our thoughts and consciousness. For the intellectually curious, he may inspire you to learn more about this relatively unknown religion.