Food for Thought

A new book (August) by Sam Harris — THE END OF FAITH — has been called to my attention as something that might interest the readers of this blog.

It certainly interested me. Neuroscientist Harris has written a challenging book on a subject that must be discussed and confronted. Are we in the midst of a great conflict between reason and religious faith? Though Harris sees obvious distinctions among religions – noting that today we confront Muslim, not Jain, terrorists – it is all religious orthodoxy that is in his crosshairs as the enemy of progress.

Now this is a huge subject and I am not posting this to get into a protracted discussion of it on here. And Harris’ book is distinctly a young man’s work, given to the extremes of youth. [Doesn’t everybody do their best work when they’re young?–ed. Oh, shut up.] But those are necessary extremes for us all to confront at this time. I commend the book to you.