Letter to a Christian Nation
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| Author | Sam Harris |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Religion, ethics |
| Publisher | Knopf (hardcover), Vintage (paperback) |
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Publication date
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September 19, 2006 (hardcover), January 8, 2008 (paperback) |
| Media type | Hardcover, paperback |
| Pages | 96 (hardcover), 144 (paperback) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 70158553 |
| 277.3 | |
| LC Class | BR516. H255 2006 |
| Preceded by | The End of Faith |
| Followed by | The Moral Landscape |
Letter to a Christian Nation is a book by Sam Harris, written in response to feedback he received following the publication of his first book The End of Faith. The book is written in the form of an open letter to a Christian in the United States. Harris states that his aim is "to demolish the intellectual and moral pretensions of Christianity in its most committed forms." The book was released in September 2006. In October it entered the New York Times Best Seller list at number seven.
The underlying premise Harris takes is one of utilitarianism. He states:
"Questions about Morality are questions about happiness and suffering."
Harris addresses his arguments to members of the conservative Christian Right in America. In answer to their appeal to the Bible on questions of morality, he points to selected items from the Old Testament Mosaic law, (death for adultery, homosexuality, disobedience to parents etc.), and contrasts this with, for example, the complete non-violence of Jainism. Harris argues that the reliance on dogma can create a false morality, which is divorced from the reality of human suffering and the efforts to alleviate it; thus religious objections stand in the way of condom use, stem cell research, abortion, and the use of a new vaccine for the human papilloma virus.
Harris also addresses the problem of evil—the difficulty in believing in a good God who allows disasters like Hurricane Katrina—and the conflict between religion and science. A 2005 Gallup poll suggested that 53% of Americans are sympathetic to creationism, so Harris spends some time arguing for evolution and against the notion of Intelligent Design:
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