The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason in Atheists and Skeptics

Dec 16, 2014 Morgan Blackledge rated it really liked it

O.K. So Sam Harris is officially for sure not fucking around. If you need evidence of this claim, read this book. I'm coming to it a little late. I read all of his other books before I read this one. But I sure am glad I finally got around to it.

It's essentially a blueprint for all of his later work (to date). It's not simply a ferocious and inflammatory frontal attack on religious doctrine. It's also an impassioned plea for a rational and evidenced based approach to morality (explored in more O.K. So Sam Harris is officially for sure not fucking around. If you need evidence of this claim, read this book. I'm coming to it a little late. I read all of his other books before I read this one. But I sure am glad I finally got around to it.

It's essentially a blueprint for all of his later work (to date). It's not simply a ferocious and inflammatory frontal attack on religious doctrine. It's also an impassioned plea for a rational and evidenced based approach to morality (explored in more depth in The Moral Landscape) and spirituality (explored in more depth in Waking Up), with a little jab or two at contra causal fee will (explored in more depth in Free Will).

Say what you will about the man, you kind of have to respect his iron nutters. Wow dude. Way to step to some seriously difficult and contentious issues. I have to admire him for even going near this intellectual shark tank.

There is a video on YouTube in which he is essentially defending his views against a round table of academics like Jonathan Haidt, Joshua Green and Mark Hauser. Little Sam Harris goes toe to toe with this gang of heavy hitters and pretty much tops them all. You can see the frustration, fear and respect these guys have for him. They may disagree with a lot of what he says, but they all comment on how good his writing is.

You have to respect Harris for being willing to hang his junk out like that. He had to know he was going to catch utter hell from liberal academics on one side and conservative everyone else on the other. And that makes just about everyone with any kind of public platform the last time I checked.

That's one of the things that I think is so fascinating about his work. It's fierce as fuck, and it doesn't conform well to any traditional political stream; left, right or center. He bashes the crap out of Bush and the bro-cons, but he also bashes Chomsky and other liberal and progressive thinkers about as hard.

I think he represents a newly emergent political world view. It's pragmatic, unsentimental and aggressively committed to the scientific method.

Oh and one other thing. he's a closet Buddhist (not that there's anything wrong with that). He'd definitely deny it. But he for sure is. The reason I say this is he defines spirituality as the systematic first person exploration of consciousness (or something akin to that, I'm paraphrasing).

Additionally, he cites the highest attainment of the spiritual process as dis-identification with the contents of consciousness, and the abiding identification with the selfless ground of awareness (paraphrasing again but close enough).

Anyway. That is straight up Buddhist doctrine. And the last time I checked, those are faith claims. You can make them very secular and sciency. But at their core, those are faith claims and their Buddhist as fuck.

These are the realizations any serious meditator can have, as long as you have been indoctrinated into the Buddhist view of things. Equally serious meditators from other traditions interpret their experiences quite differently.

So the book probably aught to be The End Of Faith (unless you're a former Buddhist, than your cool). I don't disagree with him. I'm just calling a spade a shovel. Game recognize game.

Anyway. I'm a fan boy. I'm a little (at times a lot) uneasy with some of his arguments. But I'll be damned if I have the energy or brainpower to even try to deconstruct his work. He's part pit bull part bullet train. I think I'll just sit back and remain an awed spectator. I literally can't wait to see what he does next. That lil' guy can get it! ...more

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