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A Letter to a Christian Nation is a book or letter by Sam Harris, written on the feedback he received following the publication of his first book, The End of Faith. The book is written as an open letter to a Christian in the United States. Sam Harris states that his aim is “to demolish the intellectual and moral pretensions of Christianity in its most committed forms” (Harris ix). One of the underlying premises Sam Harris takes is one of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the doctrine that actions are right if they are useful or for the benefit of the majority. Sam Harris addresses his arguments to members of the conservative Christian Right in America. Harris makes claims against the idea that Christianity is not a religion and therefore should not be followed by people. He makes thirteen points about the defects of religion and has believers take a fresh look at their worldview so that in his words, there can follow a “public discourse that encourages critical thinking and intellectual honesty” (Harris, 87). In my opinion, Sam Harris makes positive and negative claims about religion, therefore, I am ambivalent about my thoughts on a Letter to a Christian Nation.
Sam Harris makes thirteen points about the defects of religion and has believers take a fresh look at their worldview. The thirteen points include: religion contradict one another, so they cannot be true (Harris, 5-7); sizable segments of the religious community defy exhaustively confirmed findings of modern science on evolution (Harris, x); the Bible is a bad place to look for a moral code. For instance, the Bible condones slavery, beating children and killing them in certain cases, and stoning people to death for heresy, adultery, homosexuality, working on the Sabbath, and other deeds. A morally praiseworthy part of the Bible, the Golden Rule, was taught long before Jesus by Zoroaster, Buddha, Confucius, and Epictetus (Harris, 8-11); the stance of many believers on embryonic stem cell research, abortion, contraception, and vaccinations to prevent HPV (human papillomavirus) needlessly perpetuates suffering (Harris, 23-32); doing good does not require belief in God. For instance, many doctors ‘are moved simply to alleviate suffering, without any thought of God’ (Harris, 33); secular societies in the world have a higher level of development and a lower level of crime than religious societies (Harris, 39-44); in the United States, the red states, which are populated by large numbers on the religious right who vote Republican, have higher crime rates than the blue states (Harris, 45); ‘Countries with high levels of atheism are also the most charitable both in terms of the percentage of their wealth (which) they devote to social welfare programs and the percentage (which) they give in aid to the developing world’ (Harris, 46); there is no satisfactory solution to the classic problem of evil. The enormity of human and animal suffering in the world is incompatible with the notion of an all-good, all-powerful God (Harris, 52-57); beliefs should be based on sufficient evidence, not faith. ‘(F)aith (believing without evidence) is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail’ (Harris, 66-67); the traditional arguments for the existence of God are all fatally flawed (Harris, 66-79); Our ‘competing religious certainties’ are killing us, literally. Religious differences exacerbate conflict and impede the creation of stable governments and viable economies in at least thirteen areas of the world. (Harris, 79-82) Islam is the greatest single threat to humanity’s long-term survival and happiness. ‘The idea that Islam is a peaceful religion hijacked by extremists’ is a fantasy (Harris, 85).
Sam Harris’s first assumption about religion is all religions are unethical and Islam is the biggest threat to America. Harris identifies dogma as the common element of Islam and Christianity. He argues that every “devout Muslim has the same reason for being a Muslim that you have for being a Christian” (Harris, 6). Islam arose not to compete with Christianity, but to rediscover and further develop the true spirit of Christianity. Harris fails to discuss this purpose of Islam in his book because he wants to fit reality into his “rational arguments”. As stated in our textbook, World Religions Today, “The Muslim community (ummah) is a transnational community of believers, ordained and guided by God, whose mission is to spread and institutionalize an Islamic Order, to create a socially just society” (Esposito, Fasching, and Lewis, 2018). Many Muslims partake in an annual pilgrimage to Mecca, called hajj in which all adult Muslims are expected to participate at least once if physically and financially able to do so. When Muslims participate in this peaceful pilgrimage, how is this the biggest threat to America? Not all Muslims are violent and illogical.
Sam Harris’s second assumption about religion is the clash of science and religion. In this section of his letter, Harris begins by citing the National Academy of Science. He says, “Science is a way of knowing about the natural world. It is limited to explaining the natural world through natural causes. Science can say nothing about the supernatural. Whether God exists or not is a question of which science is neutral” (Harris, 63). The trouble in human understanding comes when we neglect to recognize its limit, upon our ability to know. If this is anything we can say about humanity is that he cannot speak dogmatically about the question “why” solely upon human understanding. Sam Harris’s statement associated with science is true. The Holocaust “the singular event in human history that brought the modern era of progress to an end in mass death” (Esposito, Fasching, and Lewis, 2018) in Germany, was the name given to the attempt by Nazi Germany to eliminate all of the Jews. Hitler had no justification for killing the Jews. He wanted to see everyone dead. This is part of the natural world; a limited explanation is given through natural causes.
Tied up into one confusing knot with the science-religion debate is Sam Harris’s inability to reconcile that a good and all-powerful God can exist and be present in the world when he has allowed human suffering. Harris writes, “Of course, people of all faiths regularly assure one another that God is not responsible for human suffering. But how else can we understand the claim that God is both omniscient and omnipotent? This is the age-old problem of theodicy, of course, and we should consider it solved. If God exists, either He can do nothing to stop the most egregious calamities, or He does not care to” (Harris, 55). I agree with Sam Harris’s statement. If God is not responsible for human suffering, then why do we claim that God is both omniscient and omnipotent? An example of human suffering was the brutal violence towards the lowest caste of Hindus. Without Gandhi taking a stand for them, things would be a lot different today and the Hindus would still be treated unfairly. As stated in the textbook, “Carrying on the work of earlier reformers, Gandhi decried high-caste discrimination toward others, and he especially highlighted the brutal treatment of the “untouchable” lowest caste as a blight on Hinduism. He also extended the Hindu and Jain notion of ahimsa (nonviolence) to describe an entire way of life, what he called satyagraha, guided by this ideal. Through the following ahimsa in all spheres, Gandhi argued, the modern Hindu could find the truth in humble daily work. It was a principle that could transform the individual and society, imbuing each spiritual center” (Esposito, Fasching, and Lewis, 2018). This change in society was due to an actual human, Gandhi, and the spiritual path of ahimsa. No higher power should be claimed omniscient and omnipotent because God is not responsible for human suffering.
The nature of Harris’ misconception is that one’s faith must stand only upon one’s ability to know rightly. If there is anything, we can say about humanity it is that he has not all the data nor all the interpretation of the data. If we easily and constantly misunderstand the nature of humanity, how much more do we misunderstand Divinity? The believer submits to the higher ways of the Divine. Sam Harris rests in the mystery that the human condition is such that it is and will not be changed from what they religiously believe in. Sam Harris believes that Christianity is not a religion and makes very strong arguments for why Christianity is not a religion. Every person has the right to follow and believe in their religion without any judgment or questioning. Sam Harris judges Christians and debates whether Christianity is a religion. People should be allowed to worship any higher power or being. For now, suffice it to say that Letter to a Christian Nation is valuable in providing a concise summary of the common arguments against Christianity. This letter leaves no doubt where Harris stands and where the points of problems are between Christians and modern atheists.
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