The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason | 
 enlarge | Author: Sam Harris
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
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Rating:  837 reviews
Sales Rank: 2575
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0393327655
Dewey Decimal Number: 200
EAN: 9780393327656
ASIN: 0393327655
Publication Date: October 10, 2005
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| • | Hardcover - The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason | | • | Hardcover - The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason | | • | Paperback - THE END OF FAITH | | • | Audio Cassette - The End of Faith | | • | Audio Cassette - End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason | | • | Audio Download - The End of Faith (Unabridged) | | • | Audio CD - The End of Faith | | • | CD-ROM - The End of Faith | | • | Kindle Edition - The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason | | • | Paperback - The End of Faith | | • | Audio CD - The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason |
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Amazon.com Review
Sam Harris cranks out blunt, hard-hitting chapters to make his case for why faith itself is the most dangerous element of modern life. And if the devil's in the details, then you'll find Satan waiting at the back of the book in the very substantial notes section where Harris saves his more esoteric discussions to avoid sidetracking the urgency of his message. Interestingly, Harris is not just focused on debunking religious faith, though he makes his compelling arguments with verve and intellectual clarity. The End of Faith is also a bit of a philosophical Swiss Army knife. Once he has presented his arguments on why, in an age of Weapons of Mass Destruction, belief is now a hazard of great proportions, he focuses on proposing alternate approaches to the mysteries of life. Harris recognizes the truth of the human condition, that we fear death, and we often crave "something more" we cannot easily define, and which is not met by accumulating more material possessions. But by attempting to provide the cure for the ills it defines, the book bites off a bit more than it can comfortably chew in its modest page count (however the rich Bibliography provides more than enough background for an intrigued reader to follow up for months on any particular strand of the author' musings.) Harris' heart is not as much in the latter chapters, though, but in presenting his main premise. Simply stated, any belief system that speaks with assurance about the hereafter has the potential to place far less value on the here and now. And thus the corollary -- when death is simply a door translating us from one existence to another, it loses its sting and finality. Harris pointedly asks us to consider that those who do not fear death for themselves, and who also revere ancient scriptures instructing them to mete it out generously to others, may soon have these weapons in their own hands. If thoughts along the same line haunt you, this is your book.--Ed Dobeas
Product Description
An impassioned plea for reason in a world divided by faith.
This important and timely book delivers a startling analysis of the clash of faith and reason in today's world. Harris offers a vivid historical tour of mankind's willingness to suspend reason in favor of religious beliefs, even when those beliefs are used to justify harmful behavior and sometimes-heinous crimes. He asserts that in the shadow of weapons of mass destruction, we can no longer tolerate views that pit one true god against another. Most controversially, he argues that we cannot afford moderate lip service to religion—an accommodation that only blinds us to the real perils of fundamentalism. While warning against the encroachment of organized religion into world politics, Harris also draws on new evidence from neuroscience and insights from philosophy to explore spirituality as a biological, brain-based need. He calls on us to invoke that need in taking a secular humanistic approach to solving the problems of this world.
Natalie Angier wrote in the New York Times: "The End of Faith articulates the dangers and absurdities of organized religion so fiercely and so fearlessly that I felt relieved as I read it, vindicated….Harris writes what a sizable number of us think, but few are willing to say."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 832 more reviews...
 Be wary of some of those who are on your side. December 1, 2008
As others have said, this book suffers from the "destroy the village in order to save it" mentality that mirrors the attitudes of Harris' religious adversaries. He can rationalize his reverse intolerance any way he likes, but that's what it is.
Like it or not, we secular humanists gain nothing by adopting the narrow tactics of religious extremists in responding to them. One makes common cause with one's ideological opponents as best one can---and sometimes that can't be done when the gulf is too wide. And sometimes it can. And that's how the world works.
Diatribes like Harris' are, at best, distractions from trying to find those places of common accord, and a humanist jihad is NOT what secular humanists should be aspiring to.
 Stick with Daniel Dennet or Richard Dawkins November 24, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is probably one of the worst books ever written on the subject of atheisim and the end of religious faith. Harris should be taken to task on a number of issues, one, which cannot be overlooked, is his simplistic view on torture as necessary to secure vital information...Has Harris not been paying attention to the Iraq War in particular Abu Ghirab? Has he not read anything by Chalmers Johnson-someone who is more experinced than he is-on the subject of torture and information.
The other area of diagreement should be evident from Harris suggesting that people are becoming more rational and are leaving churches and religious beliefs behind them-Harris believes this is true in any religion but his own spirituality. He has consistently praised Buddhism and Hinduism while at the same time he has critised Christian teachings..I mean, I am an atheist, but this is just beyond the pale of rationality. So readers, stay with Daniel Dennett or Richard Dawkins.
 God is Dead (Again) October 31, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Often bracketed with "The God Delusion", this is a better book, though fuzzy, loosely argued and (I'm guessing) hastily written. At least Harris is intelligent and open-minded enough to see the rationale of Buddhist spiritual practice: one more intuitive leap and he might understand what religion, the Sacred, has meant to the majority of the human race.
Shame he wastes so much space on fashionable but silly anti-Muslim tirades. The reader should try going through and replacing the word "Muslim" with "Jew", and "Islam" with "Judaism", and see if it still looks acceptable, or even printable. Yet the Hebrew Bible contains at least as many exhortations to violence as the Qur`an; and Jews were "terrorists" too until they achieved their political objectives (anyone remember?) Harris never stops to wonder Why people adopt extreme beliefs: dismissing your opponents as stupid or brainwashed is a game anyone can play, and too easy to be much fun.
Muslim compose one quarter of the world's population. It is well-known that in North America and Europe there are hateful, violent racist, White Supremacist, Fascist and neo-Nazi groups. No-one ever thinks to judge all Westerners on this basis. Why then are we so strongly encouraged to vilify all Muslims because of similar minorities?
Harris should devote a couple of months to reading the Muslim saints and sages: Rumi, `Attar, Sana'i, Sa`di, Jami, Suhrawardi, Shabistari, `Iraqi, Ibn `Arabi, Ibn al-Farid, al-Hallaj, al-Makki, Ibn `Ata'illah, etc, etc, etc. The Islamic tradition is second to none, its spiritual writings astonishing in quantity and quality, uniquely poetic and life-affirming. But Buddhism should already have taught him that beliefs based on fear and hatred are always wrong.
Anti-theism without explicit atheism plus 9/11 causation revealed October 19, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Although he doesn't say so, Harris appears to be an atheist, most certainly in the sense that he does not believe in any traditional gods although towards the end of this book he seems to ascribe to the mysticism of consciousness in a manner consistent with eastern Buddhism. However Harris seems to assert a physical understanding of that phenomenon but maybe open to a naturalistic possibility of something more than just this life. What he is vehemently opposed to is the idea that ancient religions of the monotheistic persuasion have any clue about... well anything. Moreover he thinks them extremely dangerous to the point that they could well be the downfall of Homo sapiens.
This book is a response from secularism to the events of 9/11 and then some more. Harris identifies that the war is not a war on terror but a war of belief. Lots of people still don't realize that the reasons why the terrorists did what they did, is because of their belief of going to heaven while everyone else they kill goes to hell. He shows why some Muslims think this is a blessed thing (suicide bombings are called sacred bombings by the news media of some Muslims nations) and how the extremism coupled with nuclear weapons is our worst nightmare and their dream.
Harris looks at religions in terms of people acting on what they believe. He shows why religions are logically incoherent and the detrimental effects this has on otherwise rational people. He goes out of his way to show that education (lots of terrorists have attended university) does not solve this problem. He sees the trouble of extremism as religion manipulating sanity to produce insane people. Harris thinks that even moderates need to abandon religion because they just fuel fundamentalism by even being there.
He goes through the history of the inquisition, witch hunts and anti-Semiticism. He then turns to Islam and offers a very brave critique of it. People should support Sam Harris for that chapter alone. Not since Rushdie has there been anything even remotely like it. He surprisingly does a criticism of Chomsky that will have many people thinking if the great Chomsky has his causations in order.
After this Harris begins to deal with the problem of ethics and morality without traditional religion, what it means and fairly outlines the problems secularism is faced with on this issue. He uncovers that victimless crimes have a religious bases, not a logical one. Some American members of the government and judiciary are revealed as very irrational fundamentalists.
Harris presents us with dilemmas that face us today such as pacifism in the face of terrorist threats, torture and collateral damage. This again deals with ethics but from a political moral perspective absent of religion. He ends the book with an outlook to the explanation of consciousness for a better world.
With The End of Faith Harris takes the idea that anti-theism is always liberal and shoves it out the airlock. You could mistake him for George Bush if it wasn't for his passages on victimless crimes like homosexuality, recreational drug use and stem-cell research. He reveals the causation of 9/11 without the political correctness. Islam is clearly defined as a dangerous enemy to humanity. There is no cooperative deal in the offering between religion and secularism. Religion must go at all costs. He makes lots of suggestions from philosophy and couples them with political energy.
The End of Faith packs a whopping punch and maybe the hardest anti-theist book around. It is one of the most controversial books I have ever read and renders many contemporary books on atheism harmless in comparison. How it does this is by using the KISS principle. Bible like objects can cause people to murder others. There is no way around this for Harris, just turn the pages of any scripture, really believe it and you are a potential catalyst for an apocalypse walking on two legs. Do we disbelieve Harris at our peril? I think Harris has made an outstanding case for anti-theism and even a post 9/11 wakeup call for those who didn't get the message the first time around. Islam is at war with you.
Pros
Raw Anti-theism
Not since Rushdie...
Well edited, kept short and on topic
Demonstrates the problem of religion
Cons
Limited freedom of speech and thought as a solution to the problem of religious extremists
Really advocates circumstances for the use of torture (2005 Abu Ghraib shows the problem with this view and is the reason why this book gets docked a star)
The possibility of benign Monotheists are rejected
From a former christian October 15, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
What I liked most about this book was the discuss on religious moderates. I once was a devout believer who took serious everything in the bible , it was quite an experience. The deeper my devolution grew the more difficult it became to live in the real world. I began to see satan in everything; education was evil because they taught evolution which contracted the bible; pop culture values demeaned the traditionalist lifestyle and even my parents rejected strict conformity to christianity. I struggled mightily between rational understanding and religious practice, and I was going insane. I began judging others and myself in accordance to strict fundamentalist religiosity which caused difficulties in all my relationships and took me out of mainstream society. This lifestyle had an enormous emotional and mental cost however I eventually came to the understanding the any belief in the supernatural is ill-rational. The End of Faith makes the point that religious moderates ignores these realities of dogma and in doing so support fundamentalism. We now live in a time where radicals such as I was can access dangerous technologies to destroy cities for their apostasy, as a former militant evangelical I say this is something we all should be concern about. It is my hope that this book furthers that consideration.
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