End of A Good Night's Sleep
This would have been a better title to Sam Harris' book. Since I started reading it, I have had far too many post-apocalyptic dreams.
I'm about half way through. The smarter-than-necessary tone I perceived without enjoyment in the first chapter has subsequently, to my relief, been relegated to certain paragraphs containing heavier doses of personal opinion than other, adjacent, fact-ier paragraphs, to borrow from Stephen Colbert. (The previous sentence was written in imitation of Harris' writing style.)
It is not just his style I am in danger of acquiring by osmosis, I fear. He has a strong bias against Islamic believers, and some of his arguments are fairly convincing.
I can't quite cotton to his bottom line notion that Islam is the most dangerous faith. I concede that my inability to do so may be linked to my never having read Islamic texts for myself, nor having successfully gotten all the way through the Bible, and hever having tried to read Jewish holy books. Given the heavy death rates in times of low technology, I am prepared to argue (as a recovering Catholic, mind you) that the Christian faith is as bloody and dangerous as any other that ever existed on earth, past, present, and future.*
That said, it is clear that the rise of the present extremist Islamic madness (could this be Islam's analogous episode to the Inquisition period?) has the unfortunate distinction of having come to pass after world-destructive technologies have arisen and become capable of distribution. That, and the relatively lower number of Christian suicide bombers... make me start to feel that there is something to Harris' opinion that Islam, more than the other faiths, could destroy the human race.
What I don't agree with is his position that Islam cannot be lived and believed moderately, like contemporary Christianity is, by and large.
Again, however, I concede that moderately believed mythology governing international relations and world economies is inappropriate, dangerous, and a horrible waste of human resources.
*I find Harris' arugment that contemporary Christianity-based opposition to things such as stem cell research and to condom distribution in Africa, et cetera ad nauseum, are and will be the cause of unjustified, horrible amounts of suffering QUITE cogent and astute.
I'm about half way through. The smarter-than-necessary tone I perceived without enjoyment in the first chapter has subsequently, to my relief, been relegated to certain paragraphs containing heavier doses of personal opinion than other, adjacent, fact-ier paragraphs, to borrow from Stephen Colbert. (The previous sentence was written in imitation of Harris' writing style.)
It is not just his style I am in danger of acquiring by osmosis, I fear. He has a strong bias against Islamic believers, and some of his arguments are fairly convincing.
I can't quite cotton to his bottom line notion that Islam is the most dangerous faith. I concede that my inability to do so may be linked to my never having read Islamic texts for myself, nor having successfully gotten all the way through the Bible, and hever having tried to read Jewish holy books. Given the heavy death rates in times of low technology, I am prepared to argue (as a recovering Catholic, mind you) that the Christian faith is as bloody and dangerous as any other that ever existed on earth, past, present, and future.*
That said, it is clear that the rise of the present extremist Islamic madness (could this be Islam's analogous episode to the Inquisition period?) has the unfortunate distinction of having come to pass after world-destructive technologies have arisen and become capable of distribution. That, and the relatively lower number of Christian suicide bombers... make me start to feel that there is something to Harris' opinion that Islam, more than the other faiths, could destroy the human race.
What I don't agree with is his position that Islam cannot be lived and believed moderately, like contemporary Christianity is, by and large.
Again, however, I concede that moderately believed mythology governing international relations and world economies is inappropriate, dangerous, and a horrible waste of human resources.
*I find Harris' arugment that contemporary Christianity-based opposition to things such as stem cell research and to condom distribution in Africa, et cetera ad nauseum, are and will be the cause of unjustified, horrible amounts of suffering QUITE cogent and astute.