The End of Faith Book review

A friend of mine just sent me his review of an interesting new book The End of Faith by Sam Harris

I am posting the review verbatim from his email: (I have taken the liberty to add links where I thought they would do some good.)

I saw the author on C-Span's Book TV, thought he was well spoken, and I purchased the book. I finished it last night.

It is mostly a dry factual recitation, but at the same time it is a very unusual written denunciation of religious faith. The guy obviously runs a risk of being killed by Muslims. If they didn't like Salman Rushdie, this guy has to drive them blind with rage.

He says that it is a taboo to criticize religion, and he thinks the taboo is stupid and should be broken.

He says that members of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths inevitably believe that they are going to a positive after-life experience, and that members of the other faiths and non-believers are not. As a result, members of those faiths put a higher value on their lives/souls, and a lesser value on other lives/souls, and a lesser value on our time on Earth as it pales against the afterlife. As a result, he says the foundation is laid for religious groups wreaking violence on those who don't believe what they do. He cites several examples, including the Spanish Inquisition as a vivid example.

He says that faith based policies that prevent stem cell research, and prohibit condom usage in Sub-Saharan Africa, are simple examples of immoral and irrational policies that result in hordes of suffering and death of humans.

He says Muslims are particularly violent, and it isn't a surprise since the Koran repeatedly urges its followers to commit violence against nonbelievers.

He says with the proliferation of nuclear weapons, if the world community doesn't do something to persuade Jews, Christians and Muslims that their religious beliefs are irrational and ignorant, they the will inevitably destroy Earth and all humans in their attempts to get into their ideas of the afterlife.

Sobering, and a breath of fresh air amidst the red state take over of America. Speaking of which, he analyzes written statements of various religious (redundant?) members of the Bush Administration, scary.

You might read the book, parts of it are interesting. Natalie Angier of the New York Times wrote in her book review:

"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."