Atheist Sam Harris: The Truthdig Interview

With the publication of his 2004 New York Times bestseller, “The End of Faith,” a full-throttle attack on religion, Sam Harris became the most prominent atheist in America.

For many, that would be a profoundly dubious honor. A recent national study by University of Minnesota researchers found that atheists are America’s least trusted minority group—trusted less than Muslims, recent immigrants and homosexuals. Americans are also least willing to approve of their children marrying atheists, according to the study.

But Harris, a Stanford graduate in philosophy who is now completing his doctorate in neuroscience, wasn’t trying to win a popularity contest. Far from it. In his book, Harris sets out to shame, embarrass, stun and reason the religious-minded people of the world into abandoning faith-based belief systems, which he argues could soon lead us to apocalypse. He writes:

We can no longer ignore the fact that billions of our neighbors believe in the metaphysics of martyrdom, or in the literal truth of the Book of Revelation, or any of the other fantastical notions that have lurked in the minds of the faithful for millennia—because our neighbors are now armed with chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons

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Link to buy the book "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris on Amazon.com