Letter to a Christian Nation

Sam Harris

Sept 2006 · Sold by Vintage

About this eBook

From the new afterword by the author:

Humanity has had a long fascination with blood sacrifice. In fact, it has been by no means uncommon for a child to be born into this world only to be patiently and lovingly reared by religious maniacs, who believe that the best way to keep the sun on its course or to ensure a rich harvest is to lead him by tender hand into a field or to a mountaintop and bury, butcher, or burn him alive as offering to an invisible God. The notion that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that his death constitutes a successful propitiation of a “loving” God is a direct and undisguised inheritance of the superstitious bloodletting that has plagued bewildered people throughout history. . .

Ratings and reviews

Harris makes one specious argument after another, oblivious to his dubious assumptions. The most glaring mistake: His assertion that the Bible contradicts itself about how to get to heaven. He claims the Bible says in places that keeping the law is required but elsewhere only faith in Jesus saves. How many Christians did he have review the book before it was published? He's right about his claim, but didn't realize that he was staring not a contradiction, but rather the gospel, in the face. He missed that you could in theory be justified by works, but since no one in reality lives a life without sin, the only practical solution is forgiveness through faith in Christ. Harris holds a secular humanistic presupposition, which he uses to support his arguments, for example that the first four of The Ten Commandments are not related to what he calls morality. He oversimplifies history, ignoring the commuting of sentences the trade-off of slavery vs. other options for captured attackers. This skewed perspective underpins his case against the Old Testament law. Harris assumes God does not work through practical means, in particular those that can be scientifically observed. Anything short of a giant hand reaching down from the sky he regards as essentially outside of God's domain. The more complicated view, but the one actually true to the doctrine attempts to refute, that it is right for God to be both pleased and angry, to judge with blessing and cursing, and to do so through rather ordinary means because he controls whatever detail he so chooses - this level of sophistication is entirely beyond the scope of the book. Only fairly simple issues, such as problems with Roman Catholicism and Islam were covered well. Too bad, because proving a thoughtful rebuttal to the claims of religion, especially Christianity, were the purpose of the book - a purpose left unfulfilled.

Opinionated. He talks about things he doesn't really understand and confuse everyone thinking that peace would be achieved through atheism. Bet if everyone reads this, the world will all the more be worse than it is today. Just saying.

Hard Truths about religion in the world of today. Brilliant mastery of research and speech give no doubt on the work put into writing this book. You need an open mind.

About the author

Sam Harris is the author of the New York Times best seller, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, which won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction. He is a graduate in philosophy from Stanford University and has studied both Eastern and Western religious traditions, along with a variety of contemplative disciplines, for twenty years. Mr. Harris is now completing a doctorate in neuroscience, studying the neural basis of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). His work has been discussed in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Economist, and New Scientist, among many other journals, and he has made television appearances on The O'Reilly Factor, Scarborough Country, Faith Under Fire, and Book TV.