A great explanation of religion and non-religion | Letter to a Christian Nation (Vintage)

Amen | Letter to a Christian Nation (Vintage) | Sam Harris

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	• Letter to a Christian Nation (Vintage) Sam Harris Vintage, 2008 - 144 pages average customer review:based on 618 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Eye-opening and thought-provoking, though not infallible

Sam Harris' "Letter To A Christian Nation" is a short, simple essay that took only about two hours to get through; yet those two hours provide a concise summary of the principles of atheism and why (according to Harris) a religion-oriented society is outdated and unnecessary in the modern civilized world of the 21st century. This little book, a followup to Harris' "The End Of Faith," became a New York Times best-seller...and if a better book was written especially to piss off the vast majority of mainstream Americans has been written in the past decade or so, I haven't heard of it. This is Harris' real objective in this book: to make you angry, to make you think about the principles of faith, and to question the absurdities built into religion in general. When taken as a generalized argument against religious faith, the book succeeds pretty darn well.

However, during my reading of the book, I found myself thinking of little ways that would probably be used by a critic of the book to oppose and disassemble some of the individual points Harris puts forth. For instance, one of the reasons why he disdains the Bible stems from the way that Biblical scholars casually toss aside the parts of the book that they don't like, especially the parts that contradict their own beliefs and philosophical points; then he does precisely the same thing near the beginning of the book when he points out that the most completely non-violent and altruistic religious dogma ever devised (at least in his eyes) is that of Jainism, a belief system from India that influenced Mahatma Ghandi. Harris briefly mentions that Jainism isn't perfect and it has its bad parts, too, but he casually puts that fact aside after bringing it up. If he were basing his entire book on Jainism, then he could be faulted for using this rationale; but that's not the major point of this essay, so I'll forgive him for it.

Less easy to take straight is the way he argues in favor of abortion by describing an embryo as a "blastocyst" - not because I disagree with him, but because he falls for one of the more common logical traps used in an emotional debate such as this one: invent a new name to call your opponent, so as to make it easier to see the opposition as less than human, and thus make the easier to dismiss. This is seen regularly in the abortion battles, as pro-lifers refer to pro-choicers as "baby-killing pro-choice yahoos." A seasoned anti-abortion veteran would no doubt ridicule Harris' use of the term "blastocyst," as it takes away from the overused pro-life tactic of using emotional buzzwords to describe the fetus ("baby," "innocent life").

These are not the only details in the book that can be countered; they're just two examples of many presented in the slim book (less than one hundred pages). I don't disagree with Harris on these points, either. I simply note his that his arguments are not infallible, and this is why "Letter To A Christian Nation" has upset so many people to the point that they feel they have to respond (often with threats and Bible quotes). But the flaws in Harris' arguments do not detract from the overall conclusion he reaches: that religious thinking is dangerous in a world where many, many people have access to modern-day technology, because it is standing as a major obstacle to the advancement of science - especially the development of scientific methods and treatments that can help many people worldwide.

As for the book's intended role as a new weapon in the ongoing war between religion and science (which is what many of the more idiotic controversies in modern-day Western society boil down to), Harris does make some logical fallacies at times. These fallacies, naturally, are what his critics seize upon in their published responses to the book...of which there have been at least five so far. The fact that so many people have taken the time to attack Harris and reply specifically to his book shows that he has certainly succeeded in forcing them to think. I consider that a point in his favor. What I consider even more amusing are the ways his self-appointed opponents attack his arguments - often using the very same flawed arguments Harris disproves. Go onto Amazon and read the responses to his book, especially the "one-star reviews" for the book, and count how many of them use quotes from the Bible to prove the Bible is true, and that God exists. I only wish I had the capability to outrage and troll so many readers in the logical and (mostly) cool-headed manner that Harris has done with this book.

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A great explanation of religion and non-religion

This is one of the first atheism-oriented books I read once I realized that I was probably an atheist and that it was ok to read books on the subject to learn more. If I remember correctly, it was #4, after The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (great), God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens (I couldn't get into it, even though I really liked his writing), and Harris' own The End of Faith (mostly pretty good).

This book was written as a direct response to the criticism Harris received from The End of Faith. It's written directly to "Christian America", and attempts to address the biggest issues and apparent omissions from his previous book. As a result, it reads more like a conversation than a lecture, which really helps.

Though I enjoyed The End of Faith, I found Letter to a Christian Nation to be much easier to read, to understand, and to recommend to others. Harris addresses specific questions that you commonly hear when theists are questioning the atheist point of view (as they should, even though they rarely apply similar questioning to their own religion), and in a calm, matter-of-fact way.

In fact, this book seems more mellow and casual when compared to The End of Faith. This helps it a great deal, because the book can't be as easily dismissed as the angry ranting of a "militant atheist" (a term which seems to refer to any atheist who doesn't just sit down, shut up, and let the status quo do what they want).

The best part is that it's short. It's only 144 pages long (or 2 hours in audiobook form), which makes it much easier to digest for the common reader. Harris doesn't ramble or tell unnecessary anecdotes or quote other books very often. He specifically focuses on Christianity (as if the title of the book wasn't a big clue) in order to tailor this book to the general US public. If you want to read his opinions on other religions, he covers them at great length (especially Islam) in The End of Faith.

I listened to the audiobook version on my MP3 player, which I think is a great way to go. The narrator is very good, and either believes the material he's speaking, or he's an excellent actor. His calm voice lacks any venom that could distort what Harris is really trying to say.

The best thing about this book is that it's actually something you can give to your believer friends to help them understand why you can't believe in God. It specifically addresses the common Christian throughout its pages. Will it convert them? Probably not, unless they're already on the fence. And true believers won't be swayed by any of the arguments Harris makes, of course. But most rational believers will probably come away with a better understanding of who atheists really are, and they'll probably never look at their own religion the same way again.

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Amen

Short, sweet, and to the point.

As would be expected, the book generated lots of polarized reviews/comments.

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A true breath of fresh air....

BRAVO!!! This is one the most clearly argued and important cultural critiques of the last decade. Mr. Harris gives elegant voice to the concerns many of us have over the power that modern religious groups wield to alter not only history but our daily lives. We need many more rational narrative voices like that of Mr. Harris in contemporary America to expose dangerous religiosity for the divisive force that it is.

From the new afterword by the author:

Humanity has had a long fascination with blood sacrifice. In fact, it has been by no means uncommon for a child to be born into this world only to be patiently and lovingly reared by religious maniacs, who believe that the best way to keep the sun on its course or to ensure a rich harvest is to lead him by tender hand into a field or to a mountaintop and bury, butcher, or burn him alive as offering to an invisible God. The notion that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that his death constitutes a successful propitiation of a ?loving? God is a direct and undisguised inheritance of the superstitious bloodletting that has plagued bewildered people throughout history. . .

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