My Review Of The Book 'Letter To A Christian Nation'

Author Sam Harris, who is in the vanguard of atheist authors indicting religion, brings a pleasantly insightful book that I am proud to add to my personal library.

I was very pleased with the way Harris explains his views in the form of a letter, hence the name 'Letter To A Christian Nation'. I think this style of prose brings the tone of the book down to a more personal level. Harris's writing style is easy to understand even to a layman like myself. His arguments against religious belief are cogent and thought provoking.

Here are some excerpts from the book that I hope will whet the readers appetite to go and get a copy.

"Who is to say that the only thing that could give rise to space and time is a supreme being? Even if we accepted that our universe simply had to be designed by a designer, this would not suggest that this designer is the biblical God, or that He approves of Christianity."

"Christians who doubt the truth of evolution are apt to say things like "Evolution is just a theory, not a fact." Such statements betray a serious misunderstanding of the way the term "theory" is used in scientific discourse. In science, facts must be explained with reference to other facts. These larger explanatory models are "theories." Theories make predictions and can, in principle, be tested. The phrase "the theory of evolution" does not in the least suggest that evolution is not a fact. One can speak about "the germ theory of disease" or "the theory of gravitation" without casting doubt upon disease or gravity as facts of nature."

"While believing strongly, without evidence, is considered a mark of madness or stupidity in any other area of our lives, faith in God still holds immense prestige in our society."

"But ask yourself, how difficult would it have been for the Gospel writers to tell the story of Jesus' life so as to make it conform to Old Testament Prophecy? Wouldn't it have been within the power of any mortal to write a book that confirms the predictions of a previous book?"

"You are using your own moral intuitions to authenticate the wisdom of the Bible- and then, in the next moment, you assert that we human beings cannot possibly rely upon our own intuitions to rightly guide us in the world; rather, we must depend on the prescriptions of the Bible. You are using your own moral intuitions to decide that the Bible is the appropriate guarantor of your moral intuitions. Your own intuitions are still primary, and your reasoning is circular."

"Even if belief in God had a reliable, positive effect upon human behavior, this would not offer a reason to believe in God. . . . Even if atheism led straight to moral chaos, this would not suggest that the doctrine of Christianity is true."

"While many people of faith seem convinced that prayer can heal a wide variety of illnesses (despite what the best scientific research indicates), it is curious that prayer is only ever believed to work for illnesses and injuries that can be self-limiting. No one, for instance, ever seriously expects that prayer will cause an amputee to regrow a missing limb. Why not? . . . If God answers prayers-ever-why wouldn't He occasionally heal a deserving amputee? And why wouldn't people of faith expect prayer to work in such cases?"

"When we look at the natural world, we see extraordinary complexity, but we do not see optimal design. We see redundancy, regressions, and unnecessary complications; we see bewildering inefficiencies that result in suffering and death. We see flightless birds and snakes with pelvises. We see species of fish, salamanders, and crustaceans that have nonfunctional eyes, because they continued to evolve in darkness for millions of years. We see whales that produce teeth during fetal development, only to reabsorb them as adults. Such features of our world are utterly mysterious if God created all species of life on earth "intelligently"; none of them are perplexing in light of evolution."

"But just imagine how breathtakingly specific a work of prophecy would be, if it were actually the product of omniscience.  . . . In fact, it does not contain a single sentence that could not have been written by a man or woman living in the first century. This should trouble you."

"Given that faith is generally nothing more than the permission religious people give one another to believe things strongly without evidence, a conflict between science and religion is unavoidable."

"Matthew 27:9-10, for instance, claims to fulfill a saying that it attributes to Jeremiah. The saying actually appears in Zechariah 11:12-13. . . . In light of such discrepancies, how is it possible for you to believe that the Bible is perfect in all its parts?"

"I have no doubt that your acceptance of Christ coincided with some very positive changes in your life. . . . I would point out, however, that billions of other human beings, in every time and place, have had similar experiences-but they had them while thinking about Krishna, or Allah, or the Buddha, while making art or music, or while contemplating the beauty of nature."

"Norway, Iceland, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the United Kingdom are among the least religious societies on earth. According to the United Nations' Human Development Report (2005) they are also the healthiest, as indicated by life expectancy, adult literacy, per capita income, educational attainment, gender equality, homicide rate, and infant mortality. . . . Conversely, the fifty nations now ranked lowest in terms of the United Nations human development index are unwaveringly religious."

"According to the most recent interpretation of biblical prophecy, Jesus will return only after things have gone horribly awry here on earth. It is, therefore, not an exaggeration to say that if the city of New York were suddenly replaced by a ball of fire, some significant percentage of the American population would see a silver lining in the subsequent mushroom cloud, as it would suggest to them that the best thing that is ever going to happen was about to happen: the return of Christ. It should be blindingly obvious that beliefs of this sort will do little to help us create a durable future for ourselves-socially, economically, environmentally, or geopolitically."

I highly recommend this book to believers, who would benefit from gaining a better understanding of the non-believers' position on faith, and non-believers, who will find this a great debating tool as this book contains arguments that they may have never heard before. You will not be disappointed.