IllegalArgument
10th September 2006, 05:21 PM
I figured writing book reviews would improve my meager writing skills.
End of Faith - Sam Harris
Saying Sam Harris is not a fan of religion, is a kind understatement. He does an excellent job in the first third of the book pointing out the absurdities and horrors of religion through the ages. Communism is not spared either, he refers to it as an political religion. His focus though, is on religion, 9-11 was his motivation, in his opinion religion must be discarded because weapon of mass destruction are becoming too easily available, and it scares him to think will happen with fundamentalist acquire them.
Now most of the audience here would consider criticizing fundamentalist religions about as hard as shooting fish in a barrel. Harris has a particular knack for it, Islam in particular comes in for the majority of the disdain, he doesn't spare the moderate religious scorn either, he think of them as nothing but a shield for the extremists.
Where the book differs from the usual anti-religious tirade, is that Harris proposes some solutions.
First, develop a realist set of ethics, he is a big opponent of moral relativism and pragmatism. He strongly thinks that cultures are not equal and that some are superior. This was probably the most interesting part of the book. He makes some good points, how can one be pragmatic about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_killing">honor killings</a>? He has particular distaste for Noam Chomsky's relativism.
Second, and this is where he get the most criticism, he is not a Buddhist, but he strongly advocates some Buddhist principles. So strongly, that many secular reviews have called the book stealth Buddhism propaganda. He makes a distinction between religion and spirituality. He's fine with spirituality but has no respect for religion. Harris clearly states that he is attaching no supernatural explanations, just an appeal for more study of the effect of meditation for instance.
Overall, well written, engaging, lots of footnotes to follow up. The book isn't very long 227 pages, with an additional 80 pages of footnotes.
End of Faith - Sam Harris
Saying Sam Harris is not a fan of religion, is a kind understatement. He does an excellent job in the first third of the book pointing out the absurdities and horrors of religion through the ages. Communism is not spared either, he refers to it as an political religion. His focus though, is on religion, 9-11 was his motivation, in his opinion religion must be discarded because weapon of mass destruction are becoming too easily available, and it scares him to think will happen with fundamentalist acquire them.
Now most of the audience here would consider criticizing fundamentalist religions about as hard as shooting fish in a barrel. Harris has a particular knack for it, Islam in particular comes in for the majority of the disdain, he doesn't spare the moderate religious scorn either, he think of them as nothing but a shield for the extremists.
Where the book differs from the usual anti-religious tirade, is that Harris proposes some solutions.
First, develop a realist set of ethics, he is a big opponent of moral relativism and pragmatism. He strongly thinks that cultures are not equal and that some are superior. This was probably the most interesting part of the book. He makes some good points, how can one be pragmatic about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_killing">honor killings</a>? He has particular distaste for Noam Chomsky's relativism.
Second, and this is where he get the most criticism, he is not a Buddhist, but he strongly advocates some Buddhist principles. So strongly, that many secular reviews have called the book stealth Buddhism propaganda. He makes a distinction between religion and spirituality. He's fine with spirituality but has no respect for religion. Harris clearly states that he is attaching no supernatural explanations, just an appeal for more study of the effect of meditation for instance.
Overall, well written, engaging, lots of footnotes to follow up. The book isn't very long 227 pages, with an additional 80 pages of footnotes.