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

W. W. Norton, 978-0-393-32765-6, 348 pp. (incl. notes, bibliography and index), 2004

I picked up Sam Harris’ The End of Faith after watching The Four Horsemen, a two hour atheist roundtable he appeared in with Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett. I found many of Harris’ comments on spirituality intriguing, though I found myself repulsed by bigoted comments regarding Islam.

The End of Faith deals with several themes surrounding religion and why it’s no good (to put it mildly). Harris rightly states that “most religions offer no valid mechanism by which their core beliefs can be tested and revised, each new generation of believers is condemned to inherit the superstitions and tribal hatreds of its predecessors”.⁽¹⁾ Worse, religions tend to decry critical examination of any kind.

The bulk of  Harris’s criticism of religion is is focused on Christianity and vitriol towards Islam. While the underlying sentiment is sound – that religion induces people who might otherwise make good friends and neighbours to kill and maim one another at the behest of grotesquely cruel imaginary beings – the conclusions Harris draws regarding what is to be done about these irrationally harmful beliefs is disquieting, to say the least. Continue reading »

Footnotes:

1. p. 31 [↩]

I read a fair bit. Perhaps not as much as Sarah Weinman, but she’s a professional reviewer with the luxury to spend all her time reading, and by day I serve as a senior business analyst. Still, I do ok.

Inspired by Weinmen, and a few friends who track what they read, for the first time in my life I’ve started keeping a list. It only includes books I’ve finished reading, and while I’m listing the graphic novels, I’m not counting them. Not because they’re not “real literature” (though that may be debatable), but because they’re so short. As of today I’m at 25 for 2009.⁽¹⁾

I tend to read several books at once. Some books make great subway reading. Others prefer a quiet afternoon and a nice cup of chai. Others still keep me up all night wondering what’s going to happen next, when they’re supposed to lulling me to sleep.

While I’m not a career reviewer, I do write reviews for websites and magazines,⁽²⁾ and also to better organize my thoughts, interpret and integrate what I’ve read. Continue reading »

Footnotes:

1. Plus 7 graphic novels, for those interested. [↩]
2. A dozen or so publishers regularly send their latest books and catalogues to my postbox. [↩]

Titled with a with a cute wink the apocalypse, The Four Horsemen features Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. On September 30th, 2007 they sat down together and filmed a two-hour unmoderated discussion. It’s a wonderful thing.

While I’m an atheist,⁽¹⁾ this isn’t a requirement to appreciate four brilliant men philosophizing brilliantly about religion, atheism and the state of the world.

I’ve read a couple of Dawkins’ books (namely The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker)⁽²⁾ and two by Hitchens (Why Orwell Matters and God Is Not Great), but this is the first time I’ve really heard any of them speak.⁽³⁾

The video, filmed by Josh Timonen, has been provided by the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (what a name!) and has been available on YouTube for about a month in two, one-hour segments.

Naturally, with their genius so well publicized, they require no introduction, but for the uninitiated, from left to right they are Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. Continue reading »

Footnotes:

1. Please don’t read this self-important essay I wrote five years ago. [↩]
2. My responses to reading The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker. Ah, early, earnest posts. Was it only a year or so ago? [↩]
3. I don’t have cable. [↩]