Saturday, March 12, 2016

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

Ugh, this book.

I just said that out loud, as I forced myself to read the last two pages of the last chapter. Yeah, it was like that.

I'm an atheist and I'm really interested in how religion and politics have created a lot of the bigger messes in the world right now. Especially in America, where both of our presidential candidates just got interviewed by a really famous reverend trying to court the evangelical vote (UGH). But this book was just unpalatable. His overt thesis is that religion is silly and we need to be able to question people's beliefs the same way we question anything else if we're going to move forward as a society. His covert thesis, however, is that we have to go kill all the religious people, particularly Muslims, because they are stupid and homicidal. He even devotes half a chapter to why it's unethical to be a pacifist.

Grrrrr. This book reflects all the worst parts of militant atheism, including the smarter-than-thou attitude. I want it to shut up.

Grade: D

Originally posted 2008

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