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

Rating:
Summary: If you liked this book...
Review:
If you liked this book you'll love "The problem with pain" by C.S. Lewis

Rating:
Summary: The End of Faith
Review: Sam Harris' book ties it all together. "The End of Faith" is reasonable, cogent and before its time. This is a look at a thinking future in spiritual life; one that is possible after we get our religious lives in order. On the twenty-fifth of January, 2005, Frontline, in the documentary "The Spread of Al-Quaeda" put on film and on television just what Sam Harris is talking about; Muslim Jihadists - most from the middle class - hijacked mentally by the fundamentalist Mosques, taking up the sword in response to the Koran. This same behavior happens among Christians and Jews with regard to their bible. The fault is in the dream world of scripture; it should be outlawed until it can be seen for what it is - not written by God, but flawed visions; some great poetry, some excellent ideas, but so mixed with Iron Age violence as to be a very dangerous tool indeed.

Harris' hopefulness is unique. He points out that the "eastern religions" such as Buddhism have done excellent groundwork research on spiritual growth; meditative techniques that can be observed scientifically. Harris shows that strong communities, ethical concerns and issues of spirituality are natural to human beings and do not need the ignorant detritus of the past to flower among mindfull people.

This book is before its time, not just because we are an age bound to scripture but because the union of eastern and western meditative spirituality has barely begun. The West's "activity" is not all bad and Harris touches on the theme when he decries "passivity" as a mode of life.

An excellent book.

Rating:
Summary: Ending Faith
Review: Ending Faith
by
Robert Guy Barrows

Copyright © 2005 Robert Guy Barrows
All rights reserved.

January 23, 2005

Sam Harris, a bright, well-educated young man, has written and published a book with the provocative title "The End of Faith."
He has debated on radio and television with many religious people and others who are either inspired or outraged by his book.
The theme of his book is simple: Harris believes that faith-based religions are endangering the human species by putting them on the slippery path to nuclear war.
Whoa! Quite a premise!
Faith-based religions? Meaning? Yes: Judaism, Islam, and -- are you ready for this? -- Christianity -- all of the three major world religions!
He holds Islam especially responsible because of its inherent theme of violence, urging its followers to "kill the infidels."
Harris argues his premise clearly in the following five paragraphs.
Our situation is this: most of the people in this world believe that the Creator of the universe has written a book. We have the misfortune of having many such books on hand, each making an exclusive claim as to its infallibility. People tend to organize themselves into factions according to which of these incompatible claims they accept -- rather than on the basis of language, skin color, location of birth, or any other criterion of tribalism. Each of these texts urges its readers to adopt a variety of beliefs and practices, some of which are benign, many of which are not. All are in perverse agreement on one point of fundamental importance, however: "respect" for other faiths, or for the views of unbelievers, is not an attitude that God endorses. While all faiths have been touched, here and there, by the spirit of ecumenicalism, the central tenet of every religious tradition is that all others are mere repositories of error or, at best, dangerously incomplete. Intolerance is thus intrinsic to every creed. Once a person believes -- really believes -- that certain ideas can lead to eternal happiness, or to its antithesis, he cannot tolerate the possibility that people he loves might be led astray by the blandishments of unbelievers. Certainty about the next life is simply incompatible with tolerance in this one.
Observations of this sort pose an immediate problem for us, however, because criticizing a person's faith is currently taboo in every corner of our culture. On this subject, liberals and conservatives have reached a rare consensus: religious beliefs are simply beyond the scope of rational discourse. Criticizing a person's ideas about God and the afterlife is thought to be impolitic in a way that criticizing his ideas about physics or history is not. And so it is that when a Muslim suicide bomber obliterates himself along with a score of innocents on a Jerusalem street, the role that faith played in his actions is invariably discounted. His motives must have been political, economic, or entirely personal. Without faith, desperate people would still do terrible things. Faith itself is always, and everywhere, exonerated.
But technology has a way of creating fresh moral imperatives. Our technical advances in the art of war have finally rendered our religious differences -- and hence our religious beliefs -- antithetical to our survival. We can no longer ignore the fact that billions of our neighbors believe in the metaphysics of martyrdom, or in the literal truth of the book of Revelation, or any of the other fantastical notions that have lurked in the minds of the faithful for millennia -- because our neighbors are now armed with chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. There is no doubt that these developments mark the terminal phase of our credulity. Words like "God" and "Allah" must go the way of "Apollo" and "Baal," or they will unmake our world.
A few minutes spent wandering the graveyard of bad ideas suggests that such conceptual revolutions are possible. Consider the case of alchemy: it fascinated human beings for over a thousand years, and yet anyone who seriously claims to be a practicing alchemist today will have disqualified himself for most positions of responsibility in our society. Faith-based religion must suffer the same slide into obsolescence.
What is the alternative to religion as we know it? As it turns out, this is the wrong question to ask. Chemistry was not an "alternative" to alchemy; it was a wholesale exchange of ignorance at its most rococo for genuine knowledge. We will find that, as with alchemy, to speak of "alternatives" to religious faith is to miss the point.
In the above five paragraphs Harris sums up his thesis in "The End of Faith." He believes and argues persuasively that unless we give up our childish faith in the myths and superstitions of all faith-based religions, we will almost certainly blow each other up in the inevitable world-wide wars that loom before us all in the near future.
Superstition and faith, Harris says, are beliefs without any provable evidence. All three of the major faith-based world religions are living examples of such fantasy.
With this damning premise which no reasonable person in any of the three major religions can deny, he then continues to lay out his case for ending faith in seven well-written chapters with a brief and sobering epilogue.
The entire book is documented with footnotes and a 30-page bibliography listing about 600 books related to the premise Harris has laid out for the world.
For this is a world-shaking book. If it does nothing else than provoke discussion and conversation, as Harris puts it, "The End of Faith" may change the course of history.
No small job, to end faith and thereby end all war!
"The End of Faith" is not an eye-glazing academic treatise for scholars. Harris writes easily and conversationally. And he writes eye-stopping quotes!
Such as: "This world is simply ablaze with bad ideas."
Or: "If religious war is ever to become unthinkable for us, in the way that slavery and cannibalism seem poised to, it will be a matter of our having dispensed with the dogma of faith."
And: "People who harbor strong convictions without evidence belong at the margins of our societies, not in our halls of power."
As an example of faith-based convictions in the halls of power, Harris writes:
"The House majority leader, Tom Delay, is given to profundities like 'Only Christianity offers a way to live in response to the realities that we find in the world. Only Christianity.' He [Delay] claims to have gone into politics 'to promote a Biblical worldview.' Apparently feeling that it is impossible to say anything stupid while in the service of this worldview, he [Delay] attributed the shootings at the Columbine High School in Colorado to the fact that our schools teach the theory of evolution.' "
Clearly, Harris is not afraid of stirring up a controversy among the Red State voters, and especially Christian conservatives everywhere.
In the same chapter, titled "West of Eden," Harris takes on Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, whom he quotes at some length, "because [Scalia's] remarks reveal just how close we are to living in a theocracy:
"This is not Old Testament, I [Scalia] emphasize, but St. Paul... [T]he core of his message is that government -- however you want to limit that concept -- derives its moral authority from God... Indeed, it seems to me that the more Christian a country is the less likely it is to regard the death penalty as immoral... I attribute that to the fact that, for the believing Christian, death is no big deal. Intentionally killing an innocent person is a big deal: it is a grave sin, which causes one to lose his soul. But losing this life, in exchange for the next? ... For the nonbeliever, on the other hand, to deprive a man of his life is to end his existence. What a horrible act! ...
"The reaction of people of faith to this tendency of democracy to obscure the divine authority behind government should not be resignation to it, but the resolution to combat it as effectively as possible. We have done that in this country (and continental Europe has not) by preserving in our public life many visible reminders that -- in the words of a Supreme Court opinion from the 1940s -- 'we are a religious people whose institutions pre-suppose a Supreme Being.'... All this, as I [Scalia] say, is most un-European, and helps explain why our people are more inclined to understand, as St. Paul did, that government carries the sword as 'the minister of God' to 'execute wrath upon the evildoer.' "
Scalia's views, as stated above, come from published writings by Scalia and dissents to Supreme Court decisions, which are cited in the footnotes.
Harris has a clear, easy-to-read web site at http://www.samharris.org/ where many reviews of "The End of Faith" can be read.
Also on that site are reader forums where people on the internet can express their views and debate with each other about the book.
Harris ends his book with these lines:
"The days of our religious identities are clearly numbered. Whether the days of civilization itself are numbered would seem to depend, rather too much, on how soon we realize this."
People of faith may discover in "The End of Faith" a new reason for believing in evolution, rather than trying to forbid its being taught in our schools -- by realizing that our minds must evolve before we can truly love one another.
* * *
"The End of Faith" Sub-title: "Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason" by Sam Harris, W.W. Norton & Company, NY, London: 2004. 336pp.
Reviewed by: Robert Guy Barrows
email: [e-mail]


Rating:
Summary: Unstimulating
Review: Mr. Harris seems impressed by his own cleverness, or so he sees himself. As an atheist, he makes statements such as "If God does not exist, we're better off not to believe in him." Duh. Apparently he thinks that his little band of thinkers is sincerely seeking truth, but that there are millions of religious folk out there who are happy with the idea of believing is something even if it isn't true.
He goes on to say that "a belief in Santa Claus does not have to be replaced by anything at all" therefore, "a belief in God does not have to be replaced by anything." Extremey idiotic. Of course, when a child stops believing in Santa that belief is replaced by something. The question has to be answered "who puts the Christmas gifts under the tree?" Usually it is replaced by the (correct) belief that it is parents who provide the Christmas gifts. The belief in Santa can also be replaced by a belief in a spirit of giving and generosity, or of an idea of a great gift giver that does exist. The point is, the belief IS ALWAYS replaced by something. Atheists generally replace the belief in God with a belief in evolution, abiogenesis, big bang, and before the big bang they have no idea. There is always some way of answering the question, how did we get here?
I find Harris's remarks to be generally a waste of time. Apparently he has never read Thomas Aquinas or any of the great thinkers of Christian philosophy. He insists that there is no such thing as moderate practice of religion, but that is only according to his extreme and ignorant interpretions.

Rating:
Summary: THIS MAN HAS COURAGE - AND HE CAN WRITE
Review: Sam Harris is a brave man.

It's not that he's taking on big oil, government corruption or even "the church." No, he's taking on religious faith across the board and the problems it brings to our ever-shrinking global world, problems of the sort we witnessed as we watched the World Trade Center towers burn and fall. And since most people belong to one religion or another and believe in God - though they fail to agree on what the word means - Sam Harris is in the unique position of annoying most of the human race. You have to admire his bravery - and his book.

I think it's safe to say that, "The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason," is bound to be as great an abomination to believers as it will be an inspiration to freethinkers. I hope it will provoke wide debate on the topic of faith and belief. Indeed, someone should place a copy of Harris' book in a time capsule in the foundation of the building under construction at Ground Zero, which is to say that the book should be the basis for something that keeps the Freedom Tower upright, a tall order for he world's tallest building.

Since it's the reviewer's duty to point out problems, allow me to share a flaw, a minor weakness eclipsed by the strengths of Harris' daring book.

Harris uses the word "evidence" a lot. He seems to think that much of the problem of faith will be solved when people learn to follow the evidence, with science having a lot and religion having none. However, we must remember that Newton's physics was overshadowed by Einstein's ideas and that Einstein's theories were overshadowed by quantum physics. And when we deride the faithful over their strange, unproved beliefs, we must remember some scientists propose spooky things like "action at a distance," a phrase that should always be accompanied by the other-wordly tones of a Theremin. In short, scientific evidence is fallible and tentative, and too much faith in the scientific method causes problems.

Philosopher David Hume pointed out in the 18th Century that even something as glaringly "obvious" as cause and effect - the bread and butter of the scientific method - is not necessarily demonstrable or logical; he concluded, of all things, that it was primarily psychological! And "Hume's Problem" - the assertion that we can't help but psychologize the empirical method - is still unsolved and puts limits on all our claims of objectivity. I agree on the importance of evidence, but the battle over belief won't be won that way.

It will be won when we understand how, as fallible human beings, we invest certain beliefs with monumental power, when we understand the mental and emotional mechanisms that turn human ideas into sacred "truths." Or to put it more simply: The battle over belief will be won when we understand - on a deeper level than hitherto imagined - the difference between fact and opinion. And not before.

The answer to the problem of faith is not in the evidence but in ourselves. And in spite of his faith in evidence, Sam Harris helps us understand that. Read this book.

Read more about Sam Harris at www.fobes.net

Rating:
Summary: The End of Faith, by Sam Harris
Review: The End of Faith is one great book very much needed in our times when the ignorance and cruelty of religion are the basis of so much evil continuing to be played out around the world, including George W. Bush's war in Iraq and the hinted claims of more of the same in Iran. One religion or another, they all fight each other with the claim their book, or their interpretation of their book, is the only true one. That thinking, as too, too often throughout history, bleeds into politics and government. That is the very reason why James Madison led the other Founders in building a strict wall of separation between church and state into our Constitution. That wall has been breached again by this administration. Harris, in his solid observations and his mastery of English--to say nothing of his powerful and appropriate humor--helps to see the need to become informed about religious faith, to match it with all growing knowledge about our world, and to keep religion in its place, if not allow it to die a decent death. A first step in that direction is to quit paying attention to politicians who so readily make themselves whores of religion.

Gil Cantlin

Rating:
Summary: Bold and Very Well Written...
Review: The End of Faith shows a very clear parallel between terrorist motivations and those of strictly observed Christian and Jewish doctrines. Showing direct quotes from the Koran and the Bible as well as their historic execution, the value of his evidence leaves few other rational conclusions to be drawn. Both tell us to kill anyone serving another god. Both say the penalty for any violation of their commandments is brutal torture and death. The individual is always devoured in a socially-based morality.

To their intellectual and moral credit, most Christians, Jews and Muslims conveniently scuttle these biblical passages in favor of the contrarian passages which instill sound values. The true parallel is that civil people extract independent virtues from all available sources in order to live in peace, while fear-driven people use the barbaric passages as moral cover for their parasitical lifestyle, which itself is a result of their angst with effort and self-responsibility.

The true key to moral clarity is to understand the motives of the individual--every individual--according not to his capacity to serve or defy God, but according to his adherence to the rational pattern of cognition; the pattern that leads to life. Moral Armor does just that, describing and extrapolating our pattern throughout individual, social, artistic and institutional action.

The social goal of Mr. Harris and of all rational beings is to develop a world culture that respects and secures healthy coexistent activity between us all, which is possible only through reason. What we have lacked up to this point is a fully-integrated morality based on the nature of Man, which we can understand and apply simply, quickly and without violence. That time has come.

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Summary: The Dangers Of Faith-Based Beliefs And Organized Religion
Review: This is a brilliant book and the author had to have a lot of courage to write it. This is the author's first book. Sam Harris, the author, is now working on his doctorate in neuroscience. He has studied Eastern and Western religious traditions, along with a variety of spiritual disciplines for twenty years. Harris calls for the end of religious faith in the modern world and identifies religious beliefs as the core of many of the human atrocities throughout history. He argues that our willingness to ignore reason and scientific facts as we maintain our beliefs, not based on sound science and reason, will lead the world into more peril because these beliefs not only legitimize intolerance, but they have also invaded most aspects of political and secular life and threaten to become apocalyptic in a world with weapons of mass destruction.

The author believes that all religions are harmful, not just extremist & terrorist religions, which are obviously harmful. He sees those who practice moderate religion as a bigger part of the problem than some people think because they provide a foundation of unreason that radicals, fundamentalists and religious terrorists build upon.

What is a belief? A belief is a powerful force that once it is internalized moves almost everything else in a person's life. Beliefs define one's vision of the world, one's behavior and one's emotional responses. Beliefs are principles of action. It is through beliefs that we predict events and consider the likely consequences of our actions and therefore guide our behavior. The power beliefs have over our emotional lives is total because for every emotion we are capable of feeling, there is a belief that evokes it.

What is faith? The Bible defines faith as the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. It seems to say that faith is entirely self-justifying. Religious faith is unjustified belief in the most important matters that we have been convinced we don't need to justify.

The terrorists who committed the atrocities on September 11 have been described as men of profound (extremist) religious faith. There were serious reports that they expected to receive the very best rewards in heaven for their efforts. This is just one example of the dangers that we all face when persons do not base their actions on reason. Another example is the Inquisition which began in the year 1184 and continued in parts of the world until 1834. In the name of God, countless innocents were tortured and murdered for heresy. All the perpetrators of these atrocities were men of God including popes, bishops, friars and priests.

Seeking more knowledge in our world is in a way the opposite of faith. Faith relies on unquestioned, closed mindedness. Wanting to know more about our world leaves us vulnerable to new evidence. The thing that will permit human beings to work together with open minds in making a better world is our willingness to have our beliefs modified by reasoned facts.

What does religion offer? There is a clear difference between religious moderates and religious extremists. However, both pose a danger to reason. This is because moderates underestimate the effect that faith has had on man's inhumanity to man, and they wrongly advocate the belief that faith is an essential component of human life. There is a myth that moderation is far superior to more extremist religious faith. It is not moderate to believe in the Bible and the God of organized religion because these beliefs are not in line with reason and there is no evidence to support these beliefs.

It is interesting to note that moderates have had to make the decision to ignore or loosely interpret the bible in order to live coherently in the modern world. Living in a world where a single world leader can annihilate millions based on faith, it must be argued that we no longer have a right to our myths.

Spirituality, of course, is not a myth. There are degrees of human experiences of meaningfulness, selflessness, awareness and heightened emotions that go beyond our current understanding of the mind. Spirituality is the range of experiences that exceed our ordinary-everyday limits of subjectivity and include exploring new and changed emotions as well as cognitive and conceptual new awarenesses. Spirituality respects the fact healthy skepticism is important, and that skepticism does not in any way diminish spirituality.





Rating:
Summary: How to Survive and Prosper for the Next Thousand Years
Review: We humans are travellers on an unimaginably long journey that has taken us from blobs in a primordial swamp to intelligent and self-aware beings that have developed the power to create and destroy on a scale that our brains are unable to fully comprehend. Mr. Harris' book provides us with incontrovertible evidence that this journey have not been in vain.

This erudite work should be read by every literate citizen of the world. Nearly all of us come across irrationality in our lives, mostly in the form of religion and yet, if we are even able to recognize such ideas as irrational, most of us are wholly unequipped intellectually to offer an opposing point of view. This book will help to remedy this situation.


Rating:
Summary: Laughable
Review: What religion caused the most deaths in the last 100 years ?
Atheism.