Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Unbelievable
Unbelievable, by Sam Harris, is a book about religion in the modern world. Harris makes the argument that religion, all religion, is the basis for violence. With the goal of ending violence, he says that all religion should be abolished.
He goes on to say that beliefs are what cause violence, as people with beliefs act on them. The reviewer disagrees with this point saying that belief and desire are required for someone to act. He says that religious people are less rational, and they are less rational because they are religious (not for some other reason), and they are thus more prone to violence. He also defines religion as any set of beliefs that make one act violently, so that belief systems such as Communism and Nazism fit into his theory. Finally, the author says that the overriding ethical value is non-violence. This is of course a moot point because without religion, there is no standard for what is right and wrong. You can’t rank things as more ethical or less ethical if there is no religion to rank them out for you. The reviewer finishes by both complimenting the author’s writing and insulting his logic.
I would like to read this book. It’s always interesting to see what outsiders think of Christianity (or in this case, religion in general). I have had many friends who have had this point of view over the years, and I have never read a book that sums up their beliefs (or lack thereof). It is important to understand the beliefs of other people. That being said, this book may or may not represent their beliefs; the review was quite negative and thus hard to understand what the author actually wanted to say. One thing the author misses, as a side note, is that trying to abolish religion would most certainly cause more violence between those in his camp and the rest of the world that is religious. Anyways, it would probably be an interesting read. If it was well written, like the reviewer says, then it is at least worth the time to read for its writing merits.