Product Details
ISBN: 9780743268097
Category: General
Format: Paperback
Publication Date: 2006-02-06
Publisher: Free Press
Country of origin: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Pages: 336
Pagination: 336 pages
Dimensions (mm): 198x130mm
Weight: 232g
The End Of Faith: Religion, Terror, And The Future Of Reason
This important and timely book delivers a startling analysis of the clash of faith and reason in today's world. Sam Harris offers a vivid historical tour of mankind's willingness to suspend reason in favour of religious beliefs, even when those beliefs are used to justify harmful behaviour and sometimes heinous crimes. He asserts that in the shadow of weapons of mass destruction, we can no longer tolerate views that pit one true god against another. Most controversially, he argues that we cannot afford moderate lip service to religion -- an accommodation that only blinds us to the real perils of fundamentalism. While warning against the encroachment of organised religion into world politics, Harris also draws on new evidence from neuroscience and insights from philosophy to explore spirituality as a biological, brain-based need. He calls on us to invoke that need in taking a secular humanistic approach to solving the problems of this world.