I finally finished The End of Faith. I thought it was a reasonably interesting read, although I didn’t really get as much out of it as I thought I might have. Sam Harris (the author) does a nice job at getting his point across, but at times it feels like he’s beating a dead horse, because many of these points are readily apparent to the type of people that would be reading the book in the first place. Despite this fact, I understand why he would have felt that talking about such issues at length was important.

I decided to read the book for a few reasons. I was fed up with “ignoring” parts of my faith (Catholicism) that didn’t mesh well with modern society. I felt that it was challenging for me to reconcile my faith with my actions, and I was sick of religion being the only thing that made me feel bad about myself. I didn’t feel like my actions were wrong, but Catholicism, based on antiquated principles, was telling me they were. I’m also frustrated with the fact that people are willing to do things in the name of religion that are thoroughly ridiculous if done for virtually any other cause. Think about what you do in the name of God. Would you do the same thing for another reason? I also feel like I can be completely moral without having the Bible and Christian faith guiding me. I know that many feel like faith gives them a sense of meaning in their life, and I think that is fine and great for those individuals, but I have reached a point in my life where I don’t feel that that is the case for me right now.

To return to the book, Harris really captured me in the first chapter when he talked about “religious moderates.” This is pretty much what I was at one point — someone who tries to find an even ground between science and religion. The only real way to achieve this is to ignore many aspects of religion, science, or both (i.e. reconciling the different predictions of the age of the Earth, or creationism versus evolution). As Harris points out, although religious moderates don’t necessarily cause problems, they perpetuate them because they do not stand up against the religious extremists or literalists. As it stands, it is virtually taboo to criticize another individual for his or her faith. But it should not necessarily be this way. Certain religions are not tolerant of others, and many followers will never be content until their religion controls the world, and everyone else submits.

Anyway, I don’t necessarily want to give away all the details of the book, but if you are interested about it any further, feel free to talk to me about it. I have a copy of the book and audio book if you’d like to read any bits of it. Overall, I’d say it’s worthwhile if you are interested in exploring your own faith, as long as you are willing to accept the fact that this book will be quite critical of everything you’ve ever believed. In that respect, I think the novel does a great job.