In his "The End of Faith," Sam Harris alleges that faith is akin to madness because it leads individuals to have "beliefs for which there is no rational justification." He writes that if an individual believes something that is not backed up by evidence, he or she is considered insane. However, if a group of individuals is to believe the same thing, they are considered sane. Harris is not implying that people of faith are insane, he is stating that their believes are. He suggests that these beliefs were established at the time that ancient people lacked the knowledge of the world, the science that we are familiar with today. These beliefs somehow survived the acquisition of knowledge while being passed down from by generations. Throughout his book, Harris reminds us that there is danger in considering madness as holy, leading people to "commit …show more content…
They may say that his accusations are harsh and that he is himself irrational in his beliefs. They may say that it is wrong to ignore ancient texts since they are the rational explanation behind their faith. However, once again Harris is not calling the people of faith necessarily the delusional ones, he is referring to the absence of rationality behind their beliefs. Also, Harris does not appear to be preaching his own spiritual beliefs in the first chapters of the book, his goal seem to be to open the eyes of his readers to what is not being said about religion. As to the reference of ancient texts, Harris is arguing that people choose to be blind to the flaws in these writings, some have not read them completely or blindly rely on the word of authority such as a priest. He points out that there is a great amount of unreason in the world of religion and that relying on authority may be dangerous; how do we know that what the Pope preaches is reliable