Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
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Book Reviews of Letter to a Christian Nation
Book Review: Reason and hope
Summary: 5 Stars
On the stump, Barack Obama has to stand up there, proclaim he's a Christian, and say he prays to Jesus every night. Hillary Clinton has to say her faith in God had got her through her troubles with Bill. John Edwards says, "I have a deep and abiding love for my Lord, Jesus Christ."
Politicians in the United States are at their peril to ignore the Christian Right, Bible believers, fundamentalists, religious conservatives, creationists.
In "Letter to a Christian Nation," Sam Harris laments and bravely warns against this state of affairs, that adherence to faith leads to violence and wars.
Harris equates the folly of Christians believing in God with the madness of Muslims believing in Allah, and that the two faiths murderously oppose each other.
He says Christian literalists believe the Bible was written by God, that Christ was God, that life after death depends upon accepting this, and that eternity in hell awaits those who do not.
Harris says Muslims believe the Koran is God's word, that, according to Muhammad, Jesus was not God, and eternity in hell awaits unbelievers.
"Letter to a Christian Nation" details that science demands evidence, and that religion goes against reason. Besides objecting to the alleged sources of holy writings and the divinity of any human, Harris discusses many topics:
*** That the earth and cosmos are billions of years old, not created six thousand years ago.
*** That light from the farthest stars traveled billions of years to reach us, that God did not create the light already en route.
*** That "All complex life on earth has developed from simpler life-forms over billions of years."
*** That dinosaurs were not on Noah's ark.
*** That human existence ends with death, does not persist eternally in heaven or hell.
*** That biblical morality is deficient in many ways, including the subjugation of women, and importantly in not objecting to slavery.
*** That religious prudery about consenting relations adds to human misery, and is misguided in believing that "the creator of the universe will take offense at something people do while naked."
*** That "While missionaries do many noble things at great risk to themselves, their dogmatism still spreads ignorance and death. By contrast, volunteers for secular organizations like Doctors Without Borders do not waste any time telling people about the virgin birth of Jesus."
*** "Nor do they tell people in sub-Saharan Africa--where nearly four million people die from AIDS every year--that condom use is sinful." "This kind of piety is genocidal."
*** That "If God exists, either He can do nothing to stop the most egregious calamities, or He does not care to. God, therefore, is either impotent or evil." Hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, suicide bombings, and genocides would be among the calamities.
Harris concludes that only by speaking against and divesting ourselves of the dangerous fantasies of opposing religions and by adhering to scientific demands for evidence and reason can our nation and the world survive.
He has hope.
Book Review: A great explanation of religion and non-religion
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
[...]
Book Review: A simply wonderful read (as long as one gives credence to logic)
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a small concentrated dose of the all too potent and pertinent rationale of Dr. Harris. In it he manages to condense some of the most important logical arguments against religion into clear concise (if a little too finite) articles; either it being objective manifest truth in all probability, or that it is even good. It does not go into as much detail as "End of Faith" but this book is not without its merit. A plethora of grievances and religious incongruities are addressed, and any religious reader who is still compelled to critically analyze the very foundation for their beliefs has to give it to Harris that his points are largely not-easily countered, if indeed un-counterable.
But this is largely due to the position Harris takes i.e the easy one. It is easy to argue why a document so self-contradictory, archaic, barbaric, and xenophobic as the bible is easily caste aside as literature from a darker past and why God is probably not real and belief in Him does not foster good morals or good logic in our children. But this book does wonders as reading material for any believer who is willing to read it with a mindset that leaves them open to criticism. My one slight disappointment is Harris' not elaborating on a few points that would make it even more compelling. This is mostly due to the size of the book which in turn makes it more approachable for the audience for which it was intended. An audience that will likely be shocked, appalled, moved, incited to anger, or... all the more likely ignoring Harris' best points altogether (which is just too bad.) I don't think a large number of believing readers will even actually approach reading this book so academically, as to address Harris' uncompromising view, but many others will, and will probably (as rationality will inevitably command) emphatically change the way they look at their own religion.
I would also recommend "End of Faith" which in making fewer points, goes into the very detail of belief as creation of the human brain itself.
Book Review: Live and Let Live
Summary: 5 Stars
Mr. Harris makes a very important point very effectively. At our nation's founding, a great many of the people had a consciousness of how important it was not to deny the freedom of conscience to anyone. The history of Europe and Christianity is full of the oppression, persecution, and brutal violence of people who disagreed on what God commanded people to kill for. Through the slaughter of heretics and blasphemers by mobs, inquisitions, and culminating in the horror of the conflict between the Reformation movement of Protestants and the Counter-Reformation of Catholics that covered the continent with blood and whose violence still continues, people had grown weary of the fight and come here to escape from the dictates of established churches. When we got here, we began making the same mistake all over again, as when the Hartford Baptists were prevented from worshipping by the Episcopalian authorities of the locally established church. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison together with a coalition of followers of non-established churches, including Baptists, Methodists, Quakers, and Unitarians, among others, set down in the Constitution and laws that the government wasn't to meddle in religious affairs, and established a tradition that our nation would protect the freedom of conscience of all. This book re-asserts this tradition and clearly opposes the current efforts of Fundamentalist Christians to impose their values and beliefs on everyone else. His arguments should persuade all but the most fanatic and pious that we're better off without a national religion and need to find another way to educate our children not to harm others than to smack it into their heads with Bibles and telling them that Christian charity extends only to those Christians that have been government-approved.Book Review: Respect should be earned, not expected
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this last year, but was tempted to read it again after seeing it in my e-book folder yesterday. I read it in one sitting, because Harris's words ring so true to me as an atheist & because it's rather short. As such, it's a book that I wish more Christians & religious people would read, with an open mind of course, & evaluate its arguments. Harris is basically making the case that religion is irrational & even in its mildest form helps to spread dissension & cause needless suffering to others. Why is it that we accept that religion need be a part of our lives? That we should tolerate it being forced upon society?
One argument that is often made is that society as a whole needs religion to keep us from destroying civilization itself. As we can see in the US, the most religious states `red' tend to be heavy in crime, but in the more secular blue states we see a drop in crime by comparison. According to many Christians (et al.), atheists are supposed to be completely immoral, evil people, yet evidence shows that there is a correlation between high rates of secularism & a higher standard of living.
Though it is offensive to some people to even question the importance of religion, it is a stunning example of religion's tyrannical hold on people, that most overlook. All of our other beliefs e.g. environmental, political, etc. are questioned & we are expected to give reason for why we believe the way we do about them, but religion has an exemption. Because faith has been made into a virtue & honestly, no evidence has been collected in religion's favor, that we've neglected or been forced away from criticizing it or holding it to the same standards that other systems of beliefs endure.