The End of Faith
Also known as The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
Sam Harris's 2004 critique of religious faith, written after the September 11 attacks.
At a glance
Key ideas
Belief is action in potential, Against moderation, A science of good and evil …
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- Harris calls for an end to respect and tolerance for religious belief systems not grounded in evidence.
- He criticises religious moderation as well as extremism.
- He argues beliefs are a source of action, so beliefs without evidence are dangerous.
- He proposes a rational ethics based on human happiness and suffering, and a spirituality based on meditation without the supernatural.
Why it matters
- Written after 9/11, it won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award and spent 33 weeks on the bestseller list; reviewers split sharply over it.
Key facts
- Author
- Sam Harris1
- Published
- 11 Aug 20041
- Award
- PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction, 20051
- Paperback
- October 2005, with a new afterword answering critics; 33 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list1
- Follow-up
- Letter to a Christian Nation, written two years later1
Key ideas
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Belief is action in potential1
Beliefs must be coherent and true to the world, because people act on them.
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Against moderation1
Religious moderation is "the context in which religious violence can never be adequately opposed".
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A science of good and evil1
Ethics should rest on questions of human happiness and suffering.
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Spirituality without religion1
Meditation can transform experience; he holds that mysticism is a rational enterprise and religion is not.
Connections
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