Description

============================Letter to a Christian Nation============================ Title: Letter to a Christian Nation Author: Sam Harris Read By: Jordan Bridges Abridged: No Copyright: 2006 Audiobook Copyright: 2006 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio ISBN: 9780743567053File Information================ Number Of MP3s: 2 Total Duration: 01:55:34 Total MP3 Size: 52.9MB Encoded At: 64kbps 32kHz mono ID3 Tags: Yes Original Source: 2 Audio CDsBook Description================In response to his award-winning bestseller The End of Faith, Sam Harris received thousands of letters from Christians excoriating him for not believing in God. Letter to a Christian Nation is his courageous and controversial reply. Using rational argument, Harris offers a measured refutation of the beliefs that form the core of fundamentalist Christianity. Addressing current topics ranging from intelligent design and stem-cell research to the connections between religion and violence, Letter to a Christian Nation boldly challenges the influence that faith has on public life in our nation.Review======Summary: Now that’s how you do it. A compact, concise distillation of the atheist position that loses none of its rhetorical force or persuasive value.Written as a reply to the flood of religious feedback he received after publishing The End of Faith, Sam Harris’ Letter to a Christian Nation is a point-by-point response to his critics. As the title suggests, it is addressed primarily to American Christians (the book is written in the second person), and presents the reasons why Harris and many other atheists consider religious beliefs not just false but dangerous, and why atheism is a moral imperative in the face of the religious chaos and hatred that is dividing our world. Topics covered include the immorality of verses in the Bible, the harm caused by imposition of fundamentalist beliefs, the failure of religion to cause good social effects, and how religious moderates are unwittingly providing fertile ground for violence by promoting the idea that faith is a respectable method of decision-making that should not be criticized.This is well-traveled ground, and Harris does not add anything that a knowledgeable atheist will not be aware of. However, there are millions of religious people to whom this material will be brand-new. And Harris’ presentation is just right: concise, eloquent, forceful, passionate, citing evidence where appropriate without cluttering the flow of the text, omitting extraneous detail without diminishing the force of his arguments in the slightest. His criticisms are strong but fair, and I think less inflammatory than they are in The End of Faith. The mysticism that sullied the former text is also not present here, and his argument is thoroughly grounded in reason and in real-world concerns.One of the most notable aspects of Letter to a Christian Nation is its brevity. It is almost more of a pamphlet than a book. My copy is about ninety pages of large type in a small book, and could easily be read in an hour. This is not a criticism, however. On the contrary, I think it is an excellent idea, because this book is short enough that a religious person might realistically read the whole thing if it was given to them. Many of my reviews have praised the excellent argumentation put forth by atheist authors while lamenting that the religious people who most need to hear it will probably never read it, but with this book I think there is a plausible chance that that will actually happen. I have said that there are very few books I would wholeheartedly recommend as a believer’s introduction to atheism, but this book is one of the rare few that I think is suitable for that important purpose, and that should be viewed as high praise indeed.