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 Serene-Insanity rated 23 months ago - From the page: "
It's not often that I see my florid strain of atheism expressed in any document this side of the Seine, but `'The End of Faith'' articulates the dangers and absurdities of organized religion so fiercely and so fearlessly that I felt relieved as I read it, v...
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6 Reviews
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- wisdom-of-trees rated 23 months ago
- From the page: "Sam Harris presents major religious systems like Judaism, Christianity and Islam as forms of socially sanctioned lunacy"
Looks like an interesting read.
- Herald rated 23 months ago
- Thumbs-up because it's interesting. Intolerant fundamentalism of the atheist variety.
- FLOSSDOG rated 23 months ago
- From the page: "When I was 8 years old, my family was in a terrible car accident, and my older brother almost died. The next night, as I lay scared and sleepless on my paternal grandmother's living-room couch, she softly explained to me who was to blame. Not my father's Aunt Estelle, a dour, aging wild woman and devout Baptist, who, as usual, was driving recklessly fast. No, the reason Estelle's station wagon flipped over and Joe was thrown out the back window was this: my father had stopped going to church the previous year, and God was very, very angry."
- Serene-Insanity rated 23 months ago
- From the page: "
It's not often that I see my florid strain of atheism expressed in any document this side of the Seine, but `'The End of Faith'' articulates the dangers and absurdities of organized religion so fiercely and so fearlessly that I felt relieved as I read it, vindicated, almost personally understood. Sam Harris presents major religious systems like Judaism, Christianity and Islam as forms of socially sanctioned lunacy, their fundamental tenets and rituals irrational, archaic and, important when it comes to matters of humanity's long-term survival, mutually incompatible. A doctoral candidate in neuroscience at the University of California, Los Angeles, Harris writes what a sizable number of us think, but few are willing to say in contemporary America: `'We have names for people who have many beliefs for which there is no rational justification. When their beliefs are extremely common, we call them `religious'; otherwise, they are likely to be called `mad,' `psychotic' or `delusional.' `' To cite but one example: `'Jesus Christ--who, as it turns out, was born of a virgin, cheated death and rose bodily into the heavens--can now be eaten in the form of a cracker. A few Latin words spoken over your favorite Burgundy, and you can drink his blood as well. Is there any doubt that a lone subscriber to these beliefs would be considered mad?'' The danger of religious faith, he continues, `'is that it allows otherwise normal human beings to reap the fruits of madness and consider them holy."
- jenjen1352 rated 23 months ago
- But will those of 'strong beliefs' be able to open their eyes and see beyond their noses? Somehow, I doubt it...
- Mikol rated 23 months ago
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"When I was 8 years old, my family was in a terrible car accident, and my older brother almost died. The next night, as I lay scared and sleepless on my paternal grandmother's living-room couch, she softly explained to me who was to blame. Not my father's Aunt Estelle, a dour, aging wild woman and devout Baptist, who, as usual, was driving recklessly fast. No, the reason Estelle's station wagon flipped over and Joe was thrown out the back window was this: my father had stopped going to church the previous year, and God was very, very angry."
The beginning of a review of this book. I reminds me of a similar experience I had, when an evangelical family member of mine "revealed" me that an accident we just had had in the Yungas-road in Bolivia was to be blamed on the fact that we were not following "his path".
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