Saturday, November 15, 2008

Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris

Or Why Does God Hate Amputees?

"Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply an admission of the obvious. In fact, 'atheism' is a term that should not even exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a 'non-astrologer' or a 'non-alchemist.' We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs."

Sam Harris's Letter to a Christian Nation is a tactful but uncompromising examination of the danger of religion in American life. It should be mandatory reading, whether you consider yourself to be secularist, religious, or teetering on the fence. I just can't stop thinking about how the people who need to read this book the most are probably the ones who never will...

Rating: 9.5/10

2 comments:

Grant said...

I second what Julie wrote. While strongly worded, LTaCN is not the polemical tirade of Hitchens. Harris is a philosopher and thus he lays out his arguments more rationally and systematically.

For those of you who read and enjoy LTaCN, a great companion book is Daniel Dennett's "Breaking the Spell."

Grant said...

Oh and PS

God DESPISES amputees.