The End of Faith
Written by Sam Harris
Narrated by Brian Emerson
4/5
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About this audiobook
Sam Harris
Sam Harris is the author of the bestselling books The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, Free Will, and Lying. The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction and his work has been published in more than 20 languages. He has written for the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, the Economist, the Times (London), the Boston Globe, the Atlantic, the Annals of Neurology, and elsewhere. He received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.
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Reviews for The End of Faith
185 ratings55 reviews
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Everyone has faith in something... even atheists. Like the incredible amount of faith it takes to believe that a mindless Nothing created everything. I don't have enough faith to be an atheist.
3 people found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Entertaining if you are an atheist, agnostic, or not a member of a religion, and may make you mad or annoyed if you aren't or are sure/pretty sure you KNOW. Read several to ten years ago like most of the other books of this genre that I've reviewed here.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5At first I had some difficulty with this book, because I had to get beyond the small voice that kept whispering that we shouldn't talk bad about Islam. Once I began to set aside my own prejudices and let the book speak for itself, I found it a very readable contributor to the topic of religious violence. The book does get a bit clunky in the final chapter as the author begins to make a case for Buddhism that I found somewhat off putting, with a slightly self righteous tone.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is filled with important ideas about the benefits of rational thinking and the dangers of dogma.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An effective philosophical account on why religions are intrinsically bad. Here explained lucidly, clearly and effectively.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wow. Brilliant inquiry into the nature of religion, and the cultures which nurture it and resolutely refuse to allow any sort of rigorous inquiry into faith-based motives. Condemns the big three (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) with the same brush of cold, deadly reason. Harris doesn't see any way the world can find peace while still embracing religion, and after reading this book, neither can I. It's a deeply disturbing book that's very well-written. It was probably easier for me, an avowed atheist, to read and agree with than it might be for a believer. Harris presents cogent arguments that deserve as wide an audience as possible. Highly recommended.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Although I found this book to be interesting, Harris is a bit too heavy-handed with his criticism to resound with anyone except skeptics, agnostics, and atheists; I don't think this book would convince many (any?) people to become an atheist. Still, he makes some valid points, and he isn't afraid to say things that are very far from politically correct.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5bludgeoning of reasons to follow a faith based life and believe in a peronal God
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Is it tolerant to call the religious stupid and dogmatic? Being a practicing scientist and believer in God, I don’t need to fake anything. Science and God are perfectly compatible. The most logical explanation to existence is something before time. Anything else is creating something from nothing. Nothing cannot create anything. In nature has anything ever spontaneously appeared? No. So atheists believe in the supernatural also? But just for the most important piece in reasoning, the start of everything. Antony Flew, Albert Einstein... yeah they were big dummies who believed not by faith but by their big brains. The thing is, religion for the most part doesn’t tell atheists they are morons and call names, they try to reason with them. This book and new atheists seem bent on using bullying tactics and nonsense claimed to be known fact as ammo.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I have followed Sam Harris podcast and enjoy his work. This book is a great summery of the philosophy behind his success in the podcast circuits. Amazing book. Looking forward to enjoying his other books.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very well written and argued book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Though Sam Harris' book was the first of the new atheist books to appear this decade, I would still say Dawkins' The God Delusion is the more definitive work on atheism. Sam Harris' book works much better as a work that expands on what Dawkins says. Dawkins outlines, comprehensively, the atheist position on why faith is irrational and harmful. Harris focuses more exclusively on issues of terrorism, the impact of religion (past, present and future), human happiness and morality. But while his focus may be narrower, I think Harris' book will tell an established atheist more new things than Dawkins' (as entertaining as that book is). Harris establishes that we shouldn't just dislike religion for its irrationality and harmful presence, we should genuinely fear what it may lead to. This is clearly outlined in the book's centrepiece chapter, The Problem With Islam. Here, Harris points out that violence is embedded into Islam, and the deterrent against the use of nuclear weapons (namely, their simply astonishing power to kill millions of people) that prevented the Cold War from ever becoming a real war does not exist in a religion where martyrdom is considered glorious and killing unbelievers a necessity. Harris believes that, unless there is enormous change in Islam (namely, it becomes 'moderated' like Christianity has through secularisation and scriptural ignorance) very soon, there is a serious chance of nuclear holocaust occurring yet. This argument probably sounds very extreme, but Harris argues his case brilliantly. It should be noted, though, that despite this, Harris is not in favour of going into the Middle East and simply forcing the population to change its views; he thinks we need greater 'verbal intolerance'- attempting to make the Islamic world understand what is wrong with their value system, which he admits isn't easy when people are so indoctrinated with religious dogma. It is in that chapter, as well as the two on either side of it (In the Shadow of God, which deals with religious atrocities through history, and West of Eden, where he talks of the poisonous religious influence that still exists in the West) that Harris is at his best. I didn't feel the book started very well, with the opening two chapters (of seven) dragging somewhat. It ends on an interesting, if slightly less passionate, note with chapters on morality and Eastern spirituality, which Harris believes offers much of what draws people to religion in a much more rational form. Harris believes that if we were to combine this spirituality with an end to religious teaching of children, we could see the end of faith within a generation or two- and considering what he said in earlier chapters, this seems like a pretty urgent task. Overall, Harris' book is a largely excellent, if disturbing, read, though I'd still recommend reading Dawkins' book first.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I wanted to like this book, and while I did agree with some of what Harris has to day, it seems superficial in many ways, particularly where he says:"It seems that if our species ever eradicates itself through war, it will not be because it was written in the stars but because it was written in our books; it is what we do with words like 'God' and 'paradise' and 'sin' in the present that will determine our future"In the not too distant past, I can cite the Vietnam War as one that had nothing to do with religion or god…and there are other examples to be had…perhaps if he had phrased this to mean it this has been the case in the past (but not exclusively) and will likely be the case in the future, especially given they myriad of conflict we are now enmeshed in. I think Harris book would have been much more effective had he stuck to the negative effect that religion can have/is having on our government (or any democratic government for that matter), which was, I feel founded on reason and logic. I also can’t get 100% behind the idea that if we just got rid of those particular books and God that there would be no more terrorism or war in the world, I think it’s in human nature (religion aside) to be warlike, selfish and cruel at times. I agree with him that it seems unbelievably foolish to think that any book contains the literal word of God, but that has been written by men. The idea that after 2000+ years they are in no way in need of updating and revising to take into account advances in knowledge and human understanding, is simply ridiculous. Overall it was an interesting read, but I don’t think I’d recommend this or want it for my permanent library. I give it 3 stars.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Altough an interesting, the work is quite disjointed and reads more like each chapter were a collection of essays than a coherent work. For example, the chapter "Science of Good and Evil" seemed to be an argument for morality without religion and God, but Harris seems to get the point muddled in confusing philosophical arguments. Although an interesting book, the main tenets can be gathered from the first couple of chapters. Beyond that, the book loses coherence. Overall, there are better works on the topic, such as God is not Great and Harris' own Letter to a Christian Nation.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Its a Classic. one of the best books i have ever read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5He states the facts that we know but generally would rather ignore or are afraid to say since it is politically incorrect and offensive to most of our population. Excellent analysis. Personally, to be outspoken on this is to be asking for fanatical criticism and potential harm. He is correct. I would strongly recommend this book.I have also read God is Not Great, which is another excellent book on this topic. There are definitely some commonality between the books.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Interesting and full of important information about the dangers of religion, it was still hard for me to get through. Very dry and boring, but couldn't expect anything else from a book producing information like this.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sam Harris is angry. Righteously angry. He powerfully states the case (obvious to atheists, i.e., rational thinkers) that organized religion is just so much nonsense, especially the Western variety with the personal god-figure. More importantly, he demonstrates how dangerous religious beliefs can be when acted upon seriously and literally. The expectation that Eternal Life awaits the deserving or chosen is comforting to the beleivers, but threatening when the true believer seeks to impose his beliefs on the rest of us, especially but not exclusively through martydom. Today, the world is confronted by a species of Islam that is fundamentally medieval. Harris' book is hampered in part by his too tenditious style. He comes across as a zealot. He does a fine job with description, but not so hot on his presecription. What are we, rationalists, supposed to do? It's not entirely clear that freedom of conscience would be safe in the hands of Sam Harris. The last chapter is a weak attempt to explore meditation and non-religous approaches to spirtuality. With these reservations, I do recommend reading this book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book put brought the scientific, the logical and the historical together not only to debunk blind faith in religion but to demonstrate the dangers that such dogmatism entails. A brilliant book, and as an audiobook, it absorbs the listener.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Interesting premise that religion brings nothing but trouble - although he does say good things about buddhism. Could have been a long essay.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I found it an interesting take on faith/religion of the world
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Sam Harris is one of the select band who are often collectivelydescribed as the 'New Atheists'. Along with Richard Dawkins, DanielDennet and PZ Myers he has put his head above the pulpit and asked that he be counted.This book starts off as a powerful essay against religion. Importantlyhe isn't reserving his ire for any particular religion. But he isaiming his criticism at all religions.The reason is simple. By their very nature religions don't countenancethe fact that any one other religion can be right. In one Ann Coultervideo for instance, she parroted one party line where Jews are 'just'unperfected Christians. The problem is that this attitude, whencombined with teachings which instruct the believer to kill those ofother religions and with weapons that make instantaneous genocide apossibility is a very dangerous attitude. In fact the dangers dwarf allprevious dangers from warfare. Simply put, in the Cold War erastability was maintained by the tasteless acronym 'MAD' (mutuallyassured destruction), but in the modern era MAD no longer holds sway.After all, if your people are wiped out on mass following a strikeagainst the infidels then everyone in your country would be a matyr!After this powerful start Sam Harris moves on to the subject ofSpirituality. This might sound like a bit of an odd direction for sucha book to go in, but the thesis is that humans are spiritual and can beso quite separately from any given religion. There follows a longtreatise upon the nature of reality, and how much of what we experienceis filtered by our conciousness. This was of less interest to me,though the conclusions drawn are incisive and interesting.Unfortunately this part of the book for me dragged horribly, especiallysome of the notes which included long asides on the dual nature ofexperience and philisophical attempts to prove which is more 'real' -pragmatism or realism. By the end of the end note, I had to admit Ididn't really care...So over all the book was interesting and an enjoyable read. However,the first half of the book is much more to my liking than the second.One point that I did disagree with strongly seemed to me (as anon-American) to be written with a very distorted view. At one point,when discussing the immorality of terrorist acts Harris takes exceptionto what he describes as the Chomsky school of apologists. His argumentis that when engaged in wars like the Gulf Wars (I and II) and theirequivalents the US is trying not to cause 'collateral damage', and thatthis intent to minimise non-combatant casualities marks the Americansout from terrorists as being on the 'moral high ground'.This is, of course utter poppycock. The US military machine may havetechnological weapons which lower the collateral damage, but bothAmerican foreign policy and the use of military technology repeatedlycauses massive civilian deaths. From the use of cluster bombs (the UScurrently refuses to ratify any treaty to stop deployment) to support todirty proxy wars, to claim a moral high ground is laughable, ifunderstandable given the blinkered American view of the world... But this is, in the context of the book a small point (it just irked me at the time!)
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent analysis of religious faith. For some insight on irrational belief, read most of the other reviews by LT users.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book is basically a call for people to reject religion and begin to think and live rationally and reasonably. Harris makes good points about how the dogma of religion (all religion) is not good for individuals or humanity as a whole. I did enjoy this book as a whole, but I also found that Harris tends to make things too simple. It has a tone of 'get rid of religion and everything else will be dandy'. Although on the face it sounds good, in reality not all of society's ills will be cured by getting rid of religion. Although I enjoy Harris, I must admit that I enjoy Dawkins a lot more. One day I will get around to reading Letter to a Christian Nation.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Possibly the most courageous book of our time, and one that urgently needs serious attention.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sam Harris argues that without ending dogmatic religions and actions/beliefs created thereby the future of reason, logic, and civilization will come to a negative end. While there are plenty of examples for why specific dogmas are dangerous as a whole, Harris examples, in detail, why the individualized internalization of these beliefs can be detrimental to society/cultures/world as a whole. If you are atheist, this book is wonderfully resourced. If you have a personal God, this book will example why it is truly important to question your beliefs and resulting actions.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I'm an atheist and I've read a number of other books on atheism and have enjoyed them and learned things. In this book you learn that atheism, just like religions, can be used to justify invasions, wars and torture. This book is atheism for neo-conservatives.The book is largely a prejudiced rant against Islam. Sam Harris is closer to Ann Coulter than Richard Dawkins. The historical ignorance of Mr Harris is alarming. If, as he believes, muslims are so keen to attack non-muslim countries why don't they attack Sweden rather than those countries that drew borders in the Middle East for their own imperial designs rather than the interests of the locals, those people who decided land that their forefathers lived in 2000 years ago was theirs, and those who invade countries on the other side of the world based on lies?Then to make things worse, the books goes into praise for mysticism. The whole point of atheism is to believe in as few things as possible and avoid things that cannot be proven. Mr Harris will presumably find some religion in the next few years and renounce atheism and then go on to write a book about it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everyone should read this book. It’s bold and logical. It forces you to grapple with uncomfortable truths that affect all of our lives.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5To call this book provocative is something of an understatement - it's an attack on ideals held very dear by many, from the sanctity of religious faith through to the desirability of religious tolerance. It's also highly persuasive, and a timely wake-up call to anyone who dislikes religion but believes that private beliefs should go unchallenged.Harris's key concern is pragmatic: there are religious fundamentalists happy to kill both themselves and others on the basis of their faith in particular holy books, and we must find the best way of stopping them. Harris's view is that the way to do so is to undermine all religion, not just that of the fundamentalists.He notes that "religious tolerance", the liberal consensus which minimises conflict between believers and non-believers, and between moderates and radicals, allows fundamentalism to flourish because it creates a climate where only actions can be challenged, not the beliefs that cause them. Harris (with some tendency to exaggeration) downplays the political causes of terrorism which other writers focus on, and concentrates on the central absurdity that makes acts like suicide bombing possible - belief in reward in the afterlife.Harris rarely minces words. The book is filled with quotable invective, which depending on your perspective you'll either find inspiring or apalling. As a rant, it's highly articulate and very well-argued.Harris pours scorn particularly on Islam and Christianity, enumerating the false beliefs to be found in their holy books and devoting a chapter each to their flaws. Judaism gets off more lightly, and he clearly has more sympathy for Israel than its neighbours. Eastern mysticism such as Buddhism gets off most lightly of all, on the grounds that it is to some extent a tradition of empirical investigation, not just a compendium of antiquated superstitions.There are very interesting chapters that discuss the philosophical arguments against faith - one on the nature of belief and another on ethics. Many of his arguments (e.g. in favour of torture under certain circumstances) are initially repellent, and some of his ideas are unfairly contradictory (particularly a support for Western bombing of civilians while criticising Islamic support for the same - although his grounds are reasonable, if you accept his argument that the West would avoid "collateral damage" if it could, while Islamic terrorists actively seek it out, he remains far from even-handed).The flaws are hardly relevant, as there's no need to agree with everything here to get the main point - that only by challenging all irrational religious views can we hope to create a future free from murderous extremists.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Everything religion has done wrong and nothing it has done right; nor for that matter, any serious consideration of the consequences of non-belief. Utterly misunderstands and misrepresents what he disdainfully calls 'religious moderates.' Why is this book so popular?