by Sam Harris
Edition: Hardcover
Price: $11.53
Reviewed by ChicagoLarry
Too many who honorably write to expose biblical and Christian shortcomings do so with an annoying, polemic tone. Sam Harris, not one of those, is straightforward but gentle in saying what must be said. I can easily recommend this book to Christian friends and relatives who ask why I left Christianity, without fear of it being offensive in its presentation.
Harris is able to focus on the basic themes of the Bible rather than utterly shred the book line by line until its every tedious contradiction is confetti, as so many writers do with great ceremony. In the big picture, not that much is required to make the point, and Harris does not need to quote much scripture. For example, there are polemics on this topic that keep a running tab of the hundreds of thousands of people God himself, along with his designated helpers, killed throughout the biblical record (usually for no apparent good reason). Harris makes his point without having to go that far into the forest.
But some biblical quoting is necessary. Harris points out how slavery is so clearly supported throughout the Bible and quotes God telling his people with his own mouth, exactly where to buy their slaves. Precious few Christians seem to be aware of this, or to care about it. But doesn't that make God a major slave trader, if the Bible is true?
Mostly, though, Harris sticks to the big picture—exploring the role of critical thinking and intellectual honesty, exploring the degree to which the harmful effects of religion permeate our lives and institutions, and how it hinders us from solving the very real problems of the world. He explores in detail how religion “allows people to imagine that their concerns are moral when they are not.” In fact, they are sometimes highly immoral when those concerns inflict unnecessary and appalling suffering on innocent human beings. Numerous examples are cited.
I initially included lengthy excerpts in this review. But I deleted them, for fear I might not use the right ones, and lead some to think that was all the book was about. Let me just say this book takes the thoughtful reader beyond the superficial surface-scratching most of us normally employ in pondering these issues.
Toward the end of the book, there is more discussion of Islam than I would have expected, but I think it's productive to juxtapose how Christians see Muslims and their scriptures, with how the rest of us see Christians and their scriptures: everyone wonders how everybody else could possibly believe such a thing! The discussion helps to show the dangers these religions have put us to in the past and expose us to in the future.
At under a hundred pages, it's a short and easy read for something so important and timely.
LATER NOTE: I reread the entire book this morning before breakfast. I was wowed by it more the second time around, and I don't understand why I gave it only 4 stars the first time. The author says so much in so few words! This book "tells it like it is" in the simplest way... anyone can understand it. But fair warning: I don't see how any honest Christian could read this book and remain unchanged, at least a little, maybe a lot (even as I realize—having been there—that most prefer to bend reality in service to their beliefs, rather than the other way around). This is one "letter" that's not junk mail--don't toss it!