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Letter To A Christian Nation

By Sam Harris

(59)

| eBook | 9781446464908

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Book Description

' Thousands of people have written to tell me that I am wrong not to believe in God. The most hostile of these communications have come from Christians. This is ironic, as Christians generally imagine that no faith imparts the virtues of love and forgiveness more effectively than their own. The tContinue

5 Reviews

3 people find this helpful

A call for facing fallibility

This small, single-sitting book is written expressly for Christians. Yet, it will move anyone, of any religion, or lack thereof. Its effect is twofold.
For religious readers, the effect is to compel them to question their respective dogmas. For many, doubt is a repulsive concept. Yet, for thos ... (continue)

This small, single-sitting book is written expressly for Christians. Yet, it will move anyone, of any religion, or lack thereof. Its effect is twofold.
For religious readers, the effect is to compel them to question their respective dogmas. For many, doubt is a repulsive concept. Yet, for those who take a moment to admit their own fallibility--hence, the need for God--the prospect of realizing their mistakes and learning from them is a welcome addition to the reruns that run through their heads each day reassuring them of traditional comforts.
For nonreligious readers, Sam's book encourages them to not only continue living reason-based lives, but, more importantly, for everyone's sake, to encourage the religious majority of this world to think for themselves for once, expand their practice of tolerance, and open themselves to religious discussion, without the incredibly arrogant and irrational presumption of being absolutely right all the time on matters of religious belief.
Listen, whether you are a devout Christian or a militant atheist, do yourself a huge favor and read this book. There is no conceivable way that you will regret it. Besides, all you have to lose is your ignorance.

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uberkuh said on Sep 26, 2006 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

2 people find this helpful

A short read which responds to the major arguments of a Christian, explains why religion is dangerous, explains why religious moderation is not as benign as it seems, and stresses that we should not blindly tolerate people's beliefs without asking for good reasons to support those beliefs, which is ... (continue)

A short read which responds to the major arguments of a Christian, explains why religion is dangerous, explains why religious moderation is not as benign as it seems, and stresses that we should not blindly tolerate people's beliefs without asking for good reasons to support those beliefs, which is the attitude we take in all other areas of human discourse such as history, medicine, and the natural sciences. Apparently I have a fear of ending sentences.
To Christians: If you claim to be open-minded, there really is no reason not to read this book. At 96 pages, you'll tackle it in a few hours. If there is one book to read about the views of the responsible, rational thinker, surely this is it.

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audioreader said on Aug 16, 2008 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

Harris Knocks 'Em Silly. And In So Few Words, Too...

We should not in the 21st century be obliged to take seriously the metaphysical speculations of Bronze Age goat-herders, to whom a wheel barrow would be regarded as cutting-edge, emerging technology.
We take for granted that millions of our fellow citizens harbour beliefs that would persuade t ... (continue)

We should not in the 21st century be obliged to take seriously the metaphysical speculations of Bronze Age goat-herders, to whom a wheel barrow would be regarded as cutting-edge, emerging technology.
We take for granted that millions of our fellow citizens harbour beliefs that would persuade them that a nuclear attack on the United States of America would be tragic, yes, but also a sign of the "end times" and the best of all possible news: the imminent return of their personal Saviour and the time to float up bodily into the sky if you happen to be a "chosen" one. These are not beliefs for a healthy society.
People who rate this book low almost invariably do so because they feel compelled by their religious beliefs, not because the book is anything but an excellent extended argument in the age-old and respected tradition of a polemic.
Contrary to what open-minded, rational people might think, Christians will generally not appreciate this little book. Even open-minded, rational Christians are often persuaded by their set of beliefs not to entertain certain thoughts, sometimes for fear of eternal damnation. And that is one of the points Harris tries to convey.
However, every Christian should read this book and if it upsets them in any way then they should take that as a clear sign that there is something very wrong with their view of the world and with their personal beliefs that they cannot tolerate sound, strong, and rational criticism.
Sam Harris is eminently reasonable yet forthright in his arguments over the dangers of religion. This letter, in admirably succint form, lays open the soft underbelly of Christianity and exposes all the things we in society are not encouraged to think about when it comes to religion. Do we want a President who literally believes in a talking snake? No, of course not. But we do favour religious candidates over everyone else. Are they ever grilled about their beliefs? No. Is it relevant to know what a person believes about the so-called "end times" and the "apocalypse" when that person is responsible for shaping critical environmental policies for the future, or who has their finger on the big red button, for example? I think so.
This book is a wake-up call to the world's Christians, particularly the Americans. They should not forget that the only way an outspokenly "reborn" President who consulted a "higher Father" on the War in Iraq was able to get a nation's permission to fight an illegal war, was to appeal to their morals as Christians! The last leader of note to do that sort of thing was Hitler who persuaded the devout Christian German people that he was on a mission from God, just like George Bush Jnr. has actually claimed about the War in Iraq.
You will notice that Harris's detractors hardly ever tackle his arguments head on, they rather cower in the shadows and snipe about what a bad man he is, how he doesn't understand religion (without giving concrete or valid examples), what a bad man Richard Dawkins is (as if that were even relevant to Sam's book), and so on. They generally paint all critics of religion with the same broad brush and try to dismiss them by association as "cardboard cut-outs" of some mythical evil polemicist, not by rational argument.
Harris has written a page-turning triumph in a mere 90-or-so small pages. Awesome.

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Ramnagel said on Apr 27, 2009 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

Harris, Sam (2006). Letter to a Christian Nation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 2007.
Di Sam Harris ho già parlato in un post precedente, spiegando perché il suo libro non mi era piaciuto moltissimo e anche perché non condivido alcune (e forse molte) delle sue posizioni. Ho pochissimo da aggiunge ... (continue)

Harris, Sam (2006). Letter to a Christian Nation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 2007.
Di Sam Harris ho già parlato in un post precedente, spiegando perché il suo libro non mi era piaciuto moltissimo e anche perché non condivido alcune (e forse molte) delle sue posizioni. Ho pochissimo da aggiungere, perché questo è sostanzialmente un riassunto di The End of Faith, di cui ci risparmia molte digressioni presenti nell’altro libro, come quella sul pacifismo (contro) e sulla meditazione buddista (pro). In più, c’è l’espediente retorico (e un po’ forzato) della “lettera aperta” scritta a un cristiano fondamentalismo (americano). Proprio per questo, il bersaglio di Harris qui è il fondamentalismo cristiano, piuttosto che quello islamico, che era invece la preoccupazione principale di The End of Faith).
Uno dei problemi è proprio questo: il fondamentalismo cristiano americano è una cosa conosciuta ma in parte estranea alla cultura europea, decisamente più secolarizzata. E persino a quella italiana: il nostro problema sono le continue incurisoni in “fuorigioco” del Vaticano nella politica e nella morale (soprattutton sessuale) degli italiani, piuttosto che il fatto che gli italiani siano in prevelenza credenti.
Negli Stati Uniti, invece, il 12% dei cittadini ritiene che la vita sulla terra si sia evoluta attraverso un processo naturale, il 31% che l’evoluzione sia stata guidata dalla mano di dio (il cosiddetto intelligent design) e il 53% che l’universo sia stato creato letteralmente secondo quanto scrive la bibbia. Letteralmente.
Among developed nations, America stands alone in these convictions. Our country now appears, as at in no other times in her history, like a lumbering, belliucose, dim-witted giant. Anyone who cares about the fate of civilization would do well to recognize that the combination of great power and great stupidity is simply terrifying, even to one’s friends. [p. xi]
Gli esempi che Harris riporta per corroborare questa sua tesi sono abbastanza impressionanti, da far impallidire anche la nostra Binetti:
Consider, for instance, the human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is now the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States. The virus infects over half the American population and causes nearly five thousand women to die each year from cervical cancer; the Center for Disease Contro (CDC) estimates that more than two hundred thousand die worldwide. We now have a vaccine for HPV that appears to be both safe and effective. The vaccine produced 100% immunity in the six thousand women who received it as a part of a clinical trial. And yet, Christian conservatives in our government have resisted a vaccination program on the grounds that HPV is a valuable impediment to premarital sex. These pious men and women want to preserve cervical cancer as an incentive toward abstinence, even if it sacrifices the lives of thousands of women each year. [pp. 26-27]
Ma Harris osserva anche che, oltre a impedire politiche attivamente intese al benessere (in questo caso alla salute) della popolazione se contraddicono a un qualche principio religioso o a qualche interpretazione delle scritture, il fondamentalismo religioso sottae risorse alle politiche anche attraverso costosi “programmi di ricerca”:
Can you prove that Zeus does not exist? Of course not. And yet, just imagine if we lived in a society where people spent tens of billions of dollars of their personal income each year propitiating the gods of Mount Olympus, where the government spent billions more in tax dollars to support institutions devoted to these gods, where untold billions in tax subsiudies were given to pagan temples, where elected officials did their best to impede medical research out of deference to The Iliad and The Odyssey, and where every debate about public policy was subverted to the whims of ancient authors who wrote well, but who didn’t know enough about the nature of reality to keep their excrement out of their food. This would be a horrible misappropriation of our material, moral, and intellectual resources. And yet this is exactly the society we are living in. [p. 56]
Infine, Harris argomenta molto lucidamente l’irriducibile incompatibilità tra concezione sciuentifica e concezione religiosa del modo. Lo fa in modo molto eloquente e sono pienamente d’accordo.
In the broadest sense, “science” (from the Latin scire, “to know”) represents our best efforts to know what is true about our world. We need not distinguish between “hard” and “soft” science here, or between science and a branch of the humanities like history. It is a historical fact, for instance, that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941. Consequently, this fact forms part of the worldview of scientific rationality. Given the evidence that attests to this fact, anyone believing that it happened on another date, or that the Egyptians really dropped those bombs, has a lot of explaining to do. The core of science is not controlled experiment or mathematical modeling: it is intellectual honesty. [p. 64]

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Boris Limpopo said on Jul 23, 2009 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback