Everyone should read this book

I just bought a copy of The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris and even though I'm only a chapter or so into it so far, I have to say that everyone should read this book.

Harris has got the guts to say what a whole bunch of us have thought but NOT said for a long time: that the biggest, most important threat to humanity at this time is religion. But it goes much further than that. Anyone that isn't scared by this book has their head in the sand.

Religious fundamentalists will hate the book and I really don't expect any to read it, but I'd still implore them to try. Religious moderates and liberals might have an easier go, even though Harris has some harsh words to say about them and these comments have led to some criticism; having read at least part of what Harris wrote on that subject, I tend to side with him on those points.

I used to think that religion and reason could live side by side provided that governments stuck to reason when making policy, and religious extremism could be softened somewhat with decent education. Thanks to Harris, I no longer believe this and I'm almost ashamed to admit that I ever subscribed to such a naïve view. I am now worried that religious ideas may very well destroy us if we don't do something to stop it happening, and quick.

There was a time when it didn't matter so much if some head of state ruled his domain according to religious dogma. In an age of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, this is no longer true. All it would take these days is, for example, for a devout Christian ruler of a powerful country to believe that a global war would presage the second coming, and that the end result would be that the deserving get to heaven while the rest go to burn forever - the "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" approach - and that is very scary. And if that sounds far-fetched, think for a moment about Dubya, his belief in the power of prayer and the two billion dollars of illegal funding for "faith-based initiatives".

There's a lot more to it that just this, of course, but I'm not going into it all here. Buy a copy of the book or borrow it from your local library, but whatever you do, read it.

Incidentally, check out the Point of Inquiry podcast (the feed URL is in the sidebar to the right) - they have a two-part interview with Harris talking about the book. Very interesting.