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The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason |
This book delivers a stunning analysis of the continuing clash between faith and reason. It could be attributed to Harris' hard-hitting style, cranking out strong arguments for why faith is a dangerous element in today's world. The author offers an incredibly vivid tour in history, showing how mankind has the propensity to side with religious beliefs and suspend rational thought in order to justify destructive behavior and even heinous crimes.
He stresses that with weapons of mass destruction looming, we can no longer live in a world where people continuously pit one allegedly true god against the other. He also argues that we can no longer put up with all the hypocrisy, saying that lip service to religion only blinds us to the actual perils of fundamentalism.
Harris warns against how organized religion is sneaking into our lives and society and influencing global politics, and argues for spirituality to be explored as a biological need dictated by our brains. His arguments are backed by evidence from the field of neuroscience as well as insights from philosophy. He appeals for people to take a secular and humanistic approach to deal with the problems of this world.
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I would like to read this if it somehow manages to be funny. Can anyone who has read this tell me a little more about it?
Reading The End of Faith was one of the works that inspired me to produce a small manuscript of my own. I don't recall it being funny, per se, but it was captivating and compelling. I would reevaluate it's humor value for you, but the first person I loaned it to was gobsmacked and spontaneously shared it along, never to be seen by me again.
Thanks! (A little late for me to get back to you here) but thanks anyways for the reply captivating and compelling seem like attractive traits for a book. What about it did you find captivating and compelling?
That's an interesting take on it, using religion to justify our natural destructive tendencies. I wonder why we do that? Can we overcome it?
Don't know why we do it but i tend to think religious belief really just gives people another excuse to do what they wanted to anyways and is often used by people to get others to go along. Without religion I think these same people would use politics, gangs, groups or government for the same means and some already do. There does seem to be a certain amount of destructive tendency that goes along with being human. I don't think we can overcome it but it would be nice if we could.
It's actually a very good book Zaphod, it basically says that putting religion under scrutiny is normal and the right thing to do. I am sure that a lot of people don't like to hear that, but it has to be said and his book is the medium that suits it best.
Cool, with that I will give it a try and see how it goes. Perhaps when I am done I will discus some parts of it with you. Have you read the whole thing?
I have and it really is worthy of a read and a conversation. It's a workout for your brain, so be ready for that. :)
The books tend to I read are according to some people I have suggested them to some of the hardest to get through dry large ect.. I like books that expand my mind and make me think of things I have never considered before I have some hope for this one, and look I forward to that conversation. Anything you suggest I consider while reading it?
Just take some parts of it with a grain of salt. The author tends to lead people into a conspiracy theorist mode even though I don't believe it was his intention. it's a very good book that should hold your interest for a while at least. :)
Thinking I might pick it up and give it a read around the end of summer.
Organized religion will always be around trying to figure out new ways to infiltrate every aspect of our lives. They have a strong hold on politics and that could lead to it's expansion into the financial sectors.
I don't see how all of the world's turmoil will end faith and religion. In my mind, it would actually convert more and more people over to an organized religion than ever before.
Or it would make some people forgo their gods and beliefs as they fell like they have been let down. That's the way I see it and I am quite sure many others do as well.
I don't know, I still see the true believers hanging on to something and starting the entire thing all over again by spreading the word and entrusting people to follow them and believe what they believe.
I agree that it was an interesting read.
It was right that there are reasons for everything just like reasons for not believing and reasons to believe. Everybody have their own reasons. :)
Just finished this book. It kept my interest and was informative. Although I don't agree with some of what he thinks, I still was able to agree with quite a bit of it. I preferred "Letter to a Christian Nation" which he wrote in response to feedback he got on this book. Harris is a decent writer. This is a good read and I'd encourage folks to read it.
That's the best attitude to take with any book, especially books like this. We don't all have to agree, but keeping an open mind does make life a lot better for everyone.
The one that started it all. The End of Faith is my personal favorite of all "explicitly atheistic" books that I own (which are most lol) and have read it several times. EoF holds no punches when it comes to hammering religious nonsense outright, but it also does it in a much more cerebral way than say Dawkin's God Delusion. While each author brings a certain level of themselves into their work; the calm, cool and collected way he maintains a non stop semblance of rationality regardless of the insanity being discussed is commendable. That being said, while his PhD is in neuroscience, he also holds a degree in philosophy and engages and certain number of hypothetical but plausible scenarios in the book simply in order to open a door to conversation about these uncomfortable topics. The downside is people have quote mined choice sentences from his work and then present it as though it's his view. Please ignore what you may have heard and give Sam Harris End of Faith a chance. I'd also recommend his latest book Islam and the future of tolerance written with Maajid Nawaz.
I love this book, but the letter to a Christian nation is really good by harris, he has some, very high I Q and very interesting.
Sam Harris has become one of my heroes since I became an Atheist. He also has a great podcast called 'Waking Up with Sam Harris' and it's really smart and interesting. He covers a ton of interesting topics (including but not limited to issues of atheism) and talks to some fascinating people, all in a really approachable way. (Well, except maybe in some of his conversations with other philosophers, like Peter Singer. They got into some heavy stuff that was over my head.) But check it out!
I'm with you on Sam Harris. His willingness to address the most controversial topics from a rational, intellectually honest perspective is an inspiration. I'm a huge fan of Peter Singer too, so I was delighted with that conversation. I'm glad you wrote this note. It's good to hear from someone else tuning into the Waking Up broadcast.