WINNER OF THE 2005 PEN AWARD FOR NONFICTION

From W.W. Norton:

This important and timely book delivers a startling analysis of the clash of faith and reason in the modern world. The End of Faith provides a harrowing glimpse of mankind’s willingness to suspend reason in favour of religious beliefs, even when these beliefs inspire the worst of human atrocities. Sam Harris argues that in the presence of weapons of mass destruction, we can no longer expect to survive our religious differences indefinitely.

Most controversially, he maintains that “moderation” in religion poses considerable dangers of its own: as the accommodation we have made to religious faith in our society now blinds us to the role that faith plays in perpetuating human conflict. While warning against the encroachment of organized religion into world politics, Harris draws on insights from neuroscience, philosophy, and Eastern mysticism in an attempt to provide a truly modern foundation for our ethics and our search for spiritual experience.