The End of Faith
OCLC 62265386 | | |
Followed by | Letter to a Christian Nation |
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The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason is a 2004 book by Sam Harris, concerning organized religion, the clash between religious faith and rational thought, and the problem of intolerance that correlates with religious fundamentalism.
Harris began writing the book during what he described as a period of "collective grief and stupefaction" following the
.The book was published August 11, 2004,
In response to criticism and feedback regarding The End of Faith, Harris wrote Letter to a Christian Nation two years later.
Synopsis
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The End of Faith opens with a literary account of a day in the life of a
Harris continues by examining the nature of belief itself, challenging the notion that we can in any sense enjoy freedom of belief, and arguing that "belief is a fount of action in potentia." Instead he posits that in order to be useful, beliefs must be both logically coherent, and truly representative of the real world. Insofar as religious belief fails to ground itself in
Harris follows this with a brief survey of
Among the controversial aspects of The End of Faith is an uncompromising assessment and criticism of
He also presents data from the
Harris also critiques the role of the
Next, Harris goes on to outline what he terms a "science of good and evil" – a rational approach to ethics, which he claims must necessarily be predicated upon questions of human happiness and suffering. He talks about the need to sustain "moral communities," a venture in which he feels that the separate religious moral identities of the "saved" and the "damned" can play no part. But Harris is critical of the stance of moral relativism, and also of what he calls "the false choice of pacifism." In another controversial passage, he compares the ethical questions raised by collateral damage and judicial torture during war. He concludes that collateral damage is more ethically troublesome. "If we are unwilling to torture, we should be unwilling to wage modern war," Harris concludes.
Finally, Harris turns to
The only angels we need invoke are those of our better nature: reason, honesty, and love. The only demons we must fear are those that lurk inside every human mind: ignorance, hatred, greed, and faith, which is surely the devil's masterpiece.
Reception
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Positive
Writing for The Independent, Johann Hari was largely positive, describing the book as "a brave, pugilistic attempt to demolish the walls that currently insulate religious people from criticism."[7]
Other broadly positive reviews have come from Natalie Angier,[8] Daniel Blue,[9] and Stephanie Merritt.[10]
Richard Dawkins has also endorsed the book.[11]
Negative
In a review for
Another review by David Boulton for New Humanist described the book as containing "startling oversimplifications, exaggerations and elisions."[14]
Critical reviews from
Quoting the same passage,
Response
The paperback edition of The End of Faith, published in 2005, contained a new afterword in which Harris responded to some of the more popular criticisms he has received since publication. His essay "Response to Controversy" also clarified the context of an apparently troubling passage, which was that he was referring to very specific cases like that of the religiously motivated terrorist, where the attempt to kill a murderous terrorist would essentially constitute killing someone for a belief they hold, namely the belief that unbelievers of their particular faith should be killed.[19]
See also
References
- ^ Adler, Jerry. "The New Naysayers", Newsweek, 2006.
- ^ "End of Faith press release" (PDF). samharris.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 27, 2005. Retrieved 27 February 2005.
- ^ PEN American Center, 2005. "The PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction Archived 2006-05-21 at the Wayback Machine."
- ^ Sunday Book Review, 2005-07. New York Times.
- ^ "A Year After Iraq War - Mistrust of America in Europe Ever Higher, Muslim Anger Persists". Survey reports. The Pew Research Center. 2004. Retrieved 2006-06-25.
- ^ "Bin Laden more popular with Nigerian Muslims than Bush". News. Daily Times of Pakistan. 2003. Retrieved 2006-06-25.
- ^ Johann Hari, 2005. "The sea of faith and violence." The Independent.
- ^ Natalie Angier, 2004. "Against Toleration." The New York Times.
- ^ Daniel Blue, 2004. "A fear of the faithful who mean exactly what they believe." San Francisco Chronicle.
- ^ Stephanie Merritt, 2005. "Faith no more." The Observer.
- ^ Richard Dawkins, 2005. "Coming Out Against Religious Mania." The Huffington Post.
- Tom Flynn, 2005. "Glimpses of Nirvana." Free Inquiry, volume 25 number 2.
- ^ Sam Harris, 2005. "Rational Mysticism Archived 2016-04-10 at the Wayback Machine." Free Inquiry, volume 25 number 6.
- ^ David Boulton, 2005. "Faith kills." New Humanist, volume 120 number 2.
- ^ Mohler, R. Albert Jr. (August 19, 2004). "The End of Faith – Secularism with the Gloves Off". The Christian Post. Archived from the original on 2012-06-29. Retrieved 2018-05-28.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Matthew Simpson, 2005. "Unbelievable: Religion is really, really bad for you." Christianity Today.
- ^ Madeleine Bunting, "The New Atheists loathe religion far too much to plausibly challenge it," The Guardian, May 7, 2007
- ISBN 978-0-8006-6276-9, 160 pages; italics in the original
- ^ "Response to Controversy", samharris.org.