Sam Harris

Sam Harris does not believe in God, and you do. One of you is you right, and one of you is wrong. He submits that in the grand scheme of things — at the end of the day, or at the end of life itself — his view on the world will prevail over yours.

Get your act together, Harris says, because at the moment, your arbitrary, mythological notions are getting in the way of a better life for people on Earth.

What do you say about that?

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Harris, a proud nonbeliever, released his take-no-prisoners epistle to followers of all faiths in America. It's called "Letter to a Christian Nation," and it sounds at times like an attack directly targeting the fundamentalist Christian Right, but Harris extends his criticism to people of other religions as well as moderate and progressive Christians.

"Even the most progressive faiths lend tacit support to the religious divisions in our world," he says, in the tiny but powerful book. It would probably fit in a mailbox, but might be too big for the most capable of brains.

"Religious moderates systematically deny the role that religion is playing in human conflict," Harris explained, in an interview. "They tend to play hide the ball with faith here, and they talk about these problems as not being the result of REAL religion: 'Osama bin Laden is not a REAL Muslim.' Well, he's about as real as it gets. And likewise with these Christians who think they're going to be raptured so they can witness us all hurled into a sea of fire. They're REAL Christians who are REALLY taking the Bible seriously."

We took some of the most interesting passages from Harris' book to moderate Christian experts to find out how they would respond to such a screed. They all agreed with some of Harris' notions, but took issue with others. Here's a peek at their thoughts.

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NO EVIDENCE, NO PROBLEM?

The book says: "Religion is the one area of our discourse where it is considered noble to pretend to be certain about things no human being could possibly be certain about."

Theologian says: "Well he's not describing Unitarian Universalism, because for us, questioning is central. One of our favorite hymns, actually, has the line, 'Even to question is an answer.'

"So for us, we believe that relevation is not sealed, that religious wisdom is available to all, and is available all of the time. And so we are a religious people who value the process of questioning — deep in our DNA." —Rev. William G. Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

BIBLE TRUTH — SAYS WHO?

The book says: "You are using your own moral intuitions to authenticate the wisdom of the Bible — and then, in the next moment, you assert that we human beings cannot possibly rely upon our own intuitions to rightly guide us in the world."

Theologian says "All of us read the Bible from our perspective and the perspective of our religious tradition, or maybe from an agnostic perspective or whatever. But from my standpoint, as a progressive Christian thinker, I would read the Bible from the perspective of our accomplishments in human rights in the modern world.

"But then I would look within the Biblical text itself and see where even these accomplishments have been influenced by that text, and by the great heroes of the faith down through the centuries." — David McKenzie, philosophy professor, Berry College, and Baptist pastor.

MUDDYING OTHERWISE PURE INTENTIONS

The book says: "We might also wonder, in passing, which is more moral: helping people purely out of concern for their suffering, or helping them because you think the creator of the universe will reward you for it?"

Theologian says "I think this gets it totally flipped around. That is, the whole structure of the Bible — and the structure of religious beliefs — is that one should help the person because they need help. And then what the Bible does, and what Christian tradition does, and Christian philosophy, is it locates the moral action in a bigger, broader framework.

"So it's always a both/and. In other words: Yes, helping this person is good. And then it affirms: Yes, and this delights the creator of the cosmos. But you don't do it in order to make some monarchical, divine ruler pleased." — Charles Taliaferro, Christian philosophy professor, St. Olaf College.

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Find more online:

Letter to a Christian Nation's MySpace page

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Hillary Rhodes is an asap staff reporter.

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