The End of Faith


I have come across The End of Faith by Sam Harris, and I'll be posting my thoughts as I read it..

From skimming through the book at the new Cody's in San Francisco -- the book is apparently a strong new argument against tolerance of religion. The idea it argues against is one held by most thinking people of the left and right -- that religious fundamentalism is to be opposed, while moderate religion is to be tolerated, respected, perhaps encouraged. Harris argues that, no, supernaturalism in all its forms should be opposed, precisely because the stakes are much higher now than they were in the past. Tolerance for moderate religion, though it is the polite and easy thing to do in our society, helps foster the environment in which dangerous fundamentalism can go unchallenged.

Quote from page one:
"To speak plainly and truthfully about the state of our world—to say, for instance, that the Bible and the Koran both contain mountains of life-destroying gibberish—is antithetical to tolerance as moderates currently conceive it. But we can no longer afford the luxury of such political correctness. We must finally recognize the price we are paying to maintain the iconography of our ignorance."

It's about time, I think - religious tolerance in the social sphere can certainly go on, of course (we tolerate all sorts of differences of taste, after all), but I agree that in the intellectual sphere it's out of place.

As I continued to skim the book, I found a strange final chapter, laden with quotes from translations of Buddhist canons, one apparently from Padmasambhava. Harris apparently found it wonderfully eye-opening, but it read like so much new age gibberish to me. That strange dissonance, and large sections apparently devoted to consciousness (another topic I love to blather about), made me think that I could actually read this book without simply being a member of a preached-to choir.

So - these are my first impressions; we will see how they change.

Right, then. See you later.

..

(/looks left, then right)

Yeah, okay, so it's been 3 months since I wrote anything here. New place, new job, etc. Oh well.

Posted: Sat - October 22, 2005 at 12:29 AM | | | |

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