End of faith - Sam Harris

I just finished reading "End of faith" by Sam Harris. I have yet to come across a more startling attack on beleif and religion than that is laid out by Harris in this book. I found most of it unjustified generalization and alarmist. The tone is set at the very beginning and as he goes on he makes sweeping statements out of thin air. Harris argues that religion is the bane of all that is worse in this world.

I am no fan of organized religion. But even as thousands are ready to become suicide bombers because of the promise of heaven as it is written in our holy books, millions more are doing the exact opposite just because of religion and the fear of god. Religion's biggest trumph according to me is not that it is pathway for a higher moral and ehtical consciousness, but the fear of god and hell makes millions of us not to kill, steal and do other horrible things. The path that religion lays out to our understanding of being may be irrational but sceince does not provide an perfectly rational alternative. I know know big bang and all that but how many of us are able to grasp it?

But it is an important book, especially because in a debate that is increasingly muddled where moderates struggling to find a space, a harsh look at our cherished beleifs is long overdue. In one of the hard hitting passages in the book Harris writes "Religious moderates are themselves the bearers of a terrible dogma: they imagine that the path to peace will be paved once each of us has learned to respect the unjustified beleifs of others "

Quite. In this troubled times its high time we re-look at religion and its traditions and question it. Religion however sacred it is shouldnt be beyond ridicule or critisicsm.