Religion
Sam Harris: The End of Faith
Harris argues no better than his opponents.
Sam Harris is a neuroscientist and philosopher. He places himself as a defender of reason. Yet his tirade against religion is anything but reasonable.
The good
Of course, he makes some good points:
- Believers have to ignore much of their holy books to live effectively in the modern world.
- Believers praise science when it agrees with them, and dismiss it when it disagrees with them.
- Religion should be open to criticism and critical thinking just like everything else.
- Our beliefs influence our decisions. Reagen was so convinced the apocalypse was at hand that he included Jerry Falwell in his national security briefings!
- and more
The bad
But Harris makes an equal number of bad points.
No progress in religion?
Harris says religion does “not admit of progress.”
Excuse me? St. Augustine is not progress? Natural theology is not progress? Process theology is not progress? The adoption of empirical psychotherapy into Christian counseling is not progress? These and other leaps have made Christianity both more rational and more useful over the centuries. (They have failed to make Christianity coherant, but they are still progress.)
Harris says religions just reinterpret their scriptures, and that is not “progress.” Yet science just reinterprets the world, and that is “progress.” Nice trick, Harris.
I will be the first to tell you that religion is harmful nonsense. But there are so many good arguments against religion. Why confuse the issue by making bad arguments? Harris stoops to the level of his opponents.
Faith is guilty for all wrongs?
Harris thinks religious faith is to blame for all terrorism. He thinks that if we were all rational (atheists, he means), there would be no terrorism.
But our excuses for bad choices can be anything. It does not have to be religious belief. Stalin’s excuse for murdering millions seems to have been an explicitly atheistic excuse He was destroying traditional religion and “creating a new man.”
Harris also writes that suicide bombing is caused by mostly by religious belief in a happy afterlife for martyrs. But then why have we not had suicide bombing for as long as we have had religious belief? Harris can’t answer that.
Other people, like Robert Pape, put research behind their ideas about the causes of suicide terrorism. In Dying to Win, Pape shows that suicide terrorism is most closely linked with humiliation from foreign occupying forces.
Suicide terrorists have included Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and atheists since the 1980s.
Eastern religions
Harris points out the virtues of Eastern religions. Yes, they are not as violent as Western religions. But are these pantheistic and polytheistic religions any more rational? No. Then why does Harris recommend them? Isn’t he a defender of reason?
The ugly
Christians caused the Holocaust?
Harris blames Christianity for the Holocaust. How absurd. Harris quotes Goldhagen, who has been debunked by David Dalin.
Religion to blame for atheist murders?
Harris says religion is to blame not only for its own murders, but also for the murders of Stalin and Mao, saying communism is “little more than a political religion.” Amazing. Religion is to blame for atheist murders, too?
Harris the terrorist
Harris says that some beliefs “are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for beliving them.”
Scary. Of course, he supports torture, too.
Harris also draws the line between “collatoral damage” and “willful terrorist acts” to justify Americans killing innocent Iraqis for the chance to kill terrorists. That kind of thinking is exactly what is causing our problems.
In short, The End of Faith is an illogical and dangerous. Avoid it.