Consciencebound

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

This book would not have had the success that it has had if 9/11 had not happened. In fact, Sam Harris says that he started writing this book on 9/12 after the realism of what religious extremism can do in our day and age. We all know what problems have resulted from the extremist Muslims and everyone knows about the history of Christianity and it’s past abuses and this should cause us to think very hard about what we believe and why. Since 9/11 have we Americans have had to take a serious look into the possible repercussions of irrational belief systems who think differently then we do. As long as the problems of terrorism are “over there” on the other side of the world it is hard for us to think deeply about these problems. But now we see that not only are there people out there who hate us but they also have the will and the means to bring great harm to our country and they are doing it on the basis of a book that was written over 1300 years ago. You don’t have to agree with Harris on everything or even on most things to read this book. This book should make you think. It should make you take a second look at what our assurances are when it comes to our faith. It should make you consider whether we have sufficient justification for what we believe and if we don’t then maybe we should not be so quick to want to form public policy around our positions.

Jeff

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