''The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason'' is a 2004 book by
Sam Harris
Samuel Benjamin Harris (born April 9, 1967) is an American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. His work touches on a range of topics, including rationality, religion, ethics, free will, neuroscience, meditation, psychedelics ...
, concerning organized religion, the clash between religious
faith
Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion".
Religious people ofte ...
and rational thought, and the problem of intolerance that correlates with religious
fundamentalism
Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguish ...
.
Harris began writing the book during what he described as a period of "collective grief and stupefaction" following the
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
.
[Adler, Jerry]
"The New Naysayers"
''Newsweek'', 2006. The book comprises a general critique of all
religious
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...
belief
A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to tak ...
.
The book was published August 11, 2004, and it was awarded the
PEN
A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity wh ...
/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction the following year. The paperback edition was published in October 2005. In the same month it entered
''The New York Times'' Best Seller list at number four, and remained on the list for a total of 33 weeks.
In response to criticism and feedback regarding ''The End of Faith'', Harris wrote ''
Letter to a Christian Nation
''Letter to a Christian Nation'' is a 2006 book by Sam Harris, written in response to feedback he received following the publication of his first book '' The End of Faith''. The book is written in the form of an open letter to a Christian in the ...
'' two years later.
Synopsis
''The End of Faith'' opens with a literary account of a day in the life of a
suicide bomber
A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...
– his last day. In an introductory chapter, Harris calls for an end to respect and tolerance for the competing belief systems of religion, which he describes as being "all equally uncontaminated by evidence". While focusing on the dangers posed by religious extremist groups now armed with
weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natu ...
, Harris is equally critical of religious moderation, which he describes as "the context in which religious violence can never be adequately opposed."
Harris continues by examining the nature of belief itself, challenging the notion that we can in any sense enjoy ''freedom'' of belief, and arguing that "belief is a fount of action ''in potentia''." Instead he posits that in order to be useful, beliefs must be both logically coherent, and truly representative of the real world. Insofar as ''religious'' belief fails to ground itself in
empirical
Empirical evidence for a proposition is evidence, i.e. what supports or counters this proposition, that is constituted by or accessible to sense experience or experimental procedure. Empirical evidence is of central importance to the sciences and ...
evidence, Harris likens religion to a form of
mental illness
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...
which, he says, "allows otherwise normal human beings to reap the fruits of madness and consider them ''holy''." He argues that there may be "sanity in numbers", but that it is "merely an accident of history that it is considered normal in our society to believe that the Creator of the universe can hear your prayers, while it is demonstrative of mental illness to believe that he is communicating with you by having the rain tap in Morse code on your bedroom window."
Harris follows this with a brief survey of
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...
down the ages, examining the
Inquisition
The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...
and
persecutions of witches and
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
. He contends that, far from being an aberration, the
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...
of
heretics
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
was a logical expression of Christian doctrine – one which, he says, was clearly justified by men such as
Saint Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...
. Going still further, Harris sees the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
as essentially drawing its inspiration from historical Christian
anti-Semitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
. "Knowingly or not," he says, "the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...
were agents of religion."
Among the controversial aspects of ''The End of Faith'' is an uncompromising assessment and criticism of
Islamism
Islamism (also often called political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism) is a political ideology which posits that modern State (polity), states and Administrative division, regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, Economics, econom ...
, which Harris describes as being a "cult of death." He infers a clear link between Islamic teaching and terrorist atrocities such as
9/11
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...
, a notion he supports with quotations from the
Koran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...
that call for the use of violence.
He also presents data from the
Pew Research Center
The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C.
It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and th ...
, purporting to show that
significant percentages of Muslims worldwide would justify
suicide bombing as a legitimate tactic. In an attack on what he terms "leftist unreason," Harris criticises
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...
among others for, in his view, displaying an illogical willingness to lay the entire blame for such attitudes upon
U.S. foreign policy
The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States of America, including all the bureaus and offices in the United States Department of State, as mentioned in the ''Foreign Policy Agenda'' of the Department of State, are ...
.
However, Harris also critiques the role of the
Christian right
The Christian right, or the religious right, are Christian political factions characterized by their strong support of socially conservative and traditionalist policies. Christian conservatives seek to influence politics and public policy with ...
in the United States, in influencing such areas as
drug policies,
embryonic stem cell
Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, an early-stage pre- implantation embryo. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4–5 days post fertilization, at which time they consist ...
research, and
AIDS prevention in the
developing world. In what he sees as a steady drift towards
theocracy
Theocracy is a form of government in which one or more deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries who manage the government's daily affairs.
Etymology
The word theocracy originates fr ...
, Harris strongly criticises leading figures from both the
legislature
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...
and the
judiciary
The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
for what he perceives as an unabashed ''failure'' to
separate church and state in their various domains. "Not only do we still eat the offal of the ancient world," he asserts, "we are positively smug about it."
Next, Harris goes on to outline what he terms a "science of good and evil" – a rational approach to
ethics
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concer ...
, which he claims must necessarily be predicated upon questions of human
happiness
Happiness, in the context of mental or emotional states, is positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Other forms include life satisfaction, well-being, subjective well-being, flourishing and eudaimonia.
...
and suffering. He talks about the need to sustain "moral communities," a venture in which he feels that the separate religious moral identities of the "saved" and the "damned" can play no part. But Harris is critical of the stance of
moral relativism, and also of what he calls "the false choice of
pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...
." In another controversial passage, he compares the ethical questions raised by
collateral damage
Collateral damage is any death, injury, or other damage inflicted that is an incidental result of an activity. Originally coined by military operations, it is now also used in non-military contexts.
Since the development of precision guided ...
and judicial
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...
during war. He concludes that collateral damage is more ethically troublesome. "If we are unwilling to torture, we should be unwilling to wage modern war," Harris concludes.
Finally, Harris turns to
spirituality, where he especially takes his inspiration from the practices of
Eastern religion
The Eastern religions are the religions which originated in East, South and Southeast Asia and thus have dissimilarities with Western, African and Iranian religions. This includes the East Asian religions such as Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese ...
. He writes that there have been mystics in the west and calls some of these "extraordinary men and women", such as
Meister Eckhart
Eckhart von Hochheim ( – ), commonly known as Meister Eckhart, Master Eckhart ,
Saint Seraphim of Sarov
Seraphim of Sarov (russian: Серафим Саровский; – ), born Prókhor Isídorovich Moshnín (Mashnín) ро́хор Иси́дорович Мошни́н (Машни́н) is one of the most renowned Russian saints and is venerate ...
, but that, as far as ''Western'' spirituality is concerned, "we appear to have been standing on the shoulders of dwarfs." He discusses the nature of
consciousness
Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...
, and how our sense of "self" can be made to vanish by employing the techniques of
meditation
Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...
. Harris quotes from Eastern mystics such as
Padmasambhava
Padmasambhava ("Born from a Lotus"), also known as Guru Rinpoche (Precious Guru) and the Lotus from Oḍḍiyāna, was a tantric Buddhist Vajra master from India who may have taught Vajrayana in Tibet (circa 8th – 9th centuries)... According ...
and
Nisargadatta Maharaj, but he does not admit any
supernatural element into his argument – "
mysticism
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ...
is a rational enterprise," he contends, "religion is not." He later elaborates: "The mystic has reasons for what he believes, and these reasons are empirical." He states that it is possible for one's experience of the world to be "radically transformed", but that we must speak about the possibility in "rational terms".
Reception
Positive
Writing for ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
'',
Johann Hari
Johann Eduard Hari (born 21 January 1979) is a British-Swiss writer and journalist who has written for ''The Independent'' and ''The Huffington Post''. In 2011, Hari was suspended from ''The Independent'' and later resigned, after admitting to ...
was largely positive, describing the book as "a brave, pugilistic attempt to demolish the walls that currently insulate religious people from criticism."
Other broadly positive reviews have come from
Natalie Angier
Natalie Angier /ænˈdʒɪər/ (born February 16, 1958 in the The Bronx, Bronx, New York City) is an American nonfiction writer and a science journalist for ''The New York Times''. Her awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting in 1991 ...
, Daniel Blue, and
Stephanie Merritt.
Richard Dawkins has also endorsed the book.
Negative
In a review for ''
Free Inquiry
''Free Inquiry'' is a bimonthly journal of secular humanist opinion and commentary published by the Council for Secular Humanism, a program of the Center for Inquiry. Philosopher Paul Kurtz was the editor-in-chief from its inception in 1980 until ...
'', the editor
Thomas W. Flynn alleged that Harris had allowed his argument to become clouded by his personal politics and by his use of spiritual language. Harris later described Flynn's review as "mixed, misleading, and ultimately exasperating."
Another review by David Boulton for ''
New Humanist
''New Humanist'' is a quarterly magazine, published by the Rationalist Association in the UK, that focuses on culture, news, philosophy, and science from a sceptical perspective.
History
The ''New Humanist'' has been in print for more than 13 ...
'' described the book as containing "startling oversimplifications, exaggerations and elisions."
Critical reviews from
Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...
have included those by
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
Richard Albert Mohler Jr. (born October 19, 1959) is an American Evangelicalism, evangelical theologian, the ninth president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and host o ...
for ''
The Christian Post
''The Christian Post'' is an American non-denominational, conservative, evangelical Christian online newspaper. Based in Washington, D.C., it was founded in March 2004.
News topics include the Church, ministries, missions, education, Christ ...
'', and Matthew Simpson for ''
Christianity Today''.
Madeleine Bunting
Madeleine Clare J. Bunting (born March 1964) is an English writer. She was formerly an associate editor and columnist at ''The Guardian'' newspaper. She has written five works of non-fiction and two novels (''Ceremony of Innocence'' will be publi ...
, writing in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', quotes Harris as saying "some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them." Bunting comments, "
is sounds like exactly the kind of argument put forward by those who ran the Inquisition."
Quoting the same passage,
theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
Catherine Keller asks, "
uld there be a more dangerous proposition than ''that''?" and argues that the "anti-tolerance" it represents would "dismantle" the Jeffersonian wall between church and state.
[ Catherine Keller, page 5, ''On the Mystery: Discerning Divinity in Process'', Fortress Press (January 1, 2008), , 160 pages; italics in the original]
Response
The paperback edition of ''The End of Faith'', published in 2005, contained a new afterword in which Harris responded to some of the more popular criticisms he has received since publication. His essay "Response to Controversy" also clarified the context of an apparently troubling passage, which was that he was referring to very specific cases like that of the religiously motivated terrorist, where the attempt to kill a murderous terrorist would essentially constitute killing someone for a belief they hold, namely the belief that unbelievers of their particular faith should be killed.
["Response to Controversy"](_blank)
''samharris.org''.
See also
*
Criticism of religion
Criticism of religion involves criticism of the validity, concept, or ideas of religion.
Historical records of criticism of religion go back to at least 5th century BCE in ancient Greece, in Athens specifically, with Diagoras "the Atheist" of ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:End of Faith, The
2004 non-fiction books
Antitheism
Books critical of religion
Books about atheism
Books critical of Islam
Books by Sam Harris
W. W. Norton & Company books
Books critical of Christianity
New Atheism