Customer Reviews:
 A Devastating Critique of Harris May 4, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
The new book from Christian author and apologist Ravi Zacharias, The End of Reason, is a direct response to the two books recently written by anti-religion champion Sam Harris titled The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. That Zacharias has chosen to go after Harris is easily discernable from the title. Yet Zacharias's subtitle, "A response to the new atheists" suggests that Harris isn't the only pinata brought to the party. Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens have all recently written repudiations of religion -- and Zacharias mentions all three. But Zacharias goes beyond the so-called Four Horsemen to include past luminaries such as Nietzsche, Camus, Russell, Gould, Crick, Sagan, Voltaire, and Mackie in the debate. Still, The End of Reason primarily targets Harris.
The End of Reason is a little book: small in size and brief in length. It took me about two hours to read it cover to cover. Its size and length, however, don't tell the whole story. The End of Reason is an incredibly rich presentation of the reasonableness of Christianity framed partly as a response to Harris's arguments and partly as counterarguments towards Harris and others who think like he does. And that is what is most fascinating about The End of Reason. One would expect it to be too narrowly-focused on Harris's positions to be useful as anything but a rejection of Harris's views. Yet Zacharias not only expertly answers Harris but also skillfully presents counterarguments of his own. Zacharias proves that it's not only the shield that he wields excellently, but the sword as well.
The End of Reason leaves you feeling like you've just heard a very powerful sermon. I recently finished The Reason for God by Tim Keller, which was released earlier this year. Both Keller's The Reason for God and Zacharias's The End of Reason are fantastic, yet when I finished Keller's it seemed like I had just heard a powerful lecture series on the reasonableness of Christianity while Zacharias's left me feeling like I had just heard a moving sermon on the reasonableness of Christianity.
The End of Reason is formatted as one big chapter with many subdivisions within the chapter. This gives it a certain flow that books with chapter breaks cannot enjoy. There are breaks to be sure, but they come off as transitions rather than disruptions. For example, in his examination of atheism in general and Harris's postulation of atheism in particular, Zacharias transitions from Origin, Meaning, Morality, and Hope -- and seamlessly! After a long examination atheism's capacity to answer these four important questions, Zacharias reveals Harris's deep misunderstandings of Pascal's Wager, Buddhism, and Jainism. He takes on the tough ethical questions Harris brings up about slavery, stem cell research, abortion, and cloning. As I said above, throughout the book Zacharias is doing the double dance of refuting Harris as well as presenting the validity of the Christian position. And in this section in particular he exposes Harris as a demagogue who hasn't bothered to consult the Christian position before writing his vitriolic diatribes against religion in general and Christianity in particular.
That the book is as rich as it is given its brevity is remarkable. The End of Reason is a brilliantly written response to the atheism that Harris espouses. He chides Harris and his ilk time and again for posturing in the ethical realm when his naturalism should logically entail relativism. On this front he considers the moral nihilism of Sartre and Camus far more consistent than Harris's position. He shows where Harris got it wrong historically and corrects his blatant revisionism. He strips away Harris's presuppositions hidden from plain sight and reveals an intellectually, morally, and existentially bankrupt system of belief. All in all, The End of Reason was a very satisfying read, and in my view, an absolutely devastating critique of Harris.
 It's harder to build something than it is to destoy it May 4, 2008
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
Like D'Souza or Berlinski, Ravi Zacharias is responding to the "new atheists". Ravi's format is mirroring Sam Harris's letter-like format used to promote Harris's atheistic views. Unlike Harris, Zacharias has a harder job using this tighter format of writing a letter to promote his Christian faith.
With Harris, Dawkins, Hitchens, and Dennett, all they really have to do is lash out, shame the reader as an unintelligent, irrational, intolerant, person who is doing the world great harm by believing in any form of God. After their attack, they can simply walk away and leave the reader to hold the shards of a brittle belief. They do not have to answer any worldview questions.
This can be done in a convincing manner to an uncritical mind.
Ravi wants to do two things in this book. One is proclaim why he, as an atheist, saw the world as pointless and tried to take his life but now views the world with hope coming strictly from Jesus. Second, he wants to point out the philosophical, unreasonable, irrational proclaimations made by Harris and poke holes in Harris's logic and understanding. Ravi does the second well. The problem is the book is too short to give a convincing understanding to the first goal.
Overall, this is a very good book that is worth giving to those you know read any of the "new atheists" like Harris, Hitchens, Dawkins, and Dennett.
Reading Ravi's work is always a learning experience May 3, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Ravi's response to Sam Harris' bestselling "Letter to a Christian Nation" offers the in-depth explanation anyone familiar with Ravi's teaching would expect. It is a challenge to be able to read Ravi's work one time through and soak it all in ... almost an impossible challenge. Sometimes the circular responsive rationale seems to echo the original misinformation. However, woven between the philosophy lessons are nuggets of distinct truth which are invaluable to understanding one's faith. Ravi makes the statement in his prologue that Harris has enjoyed success, like so many other books in America, "more because of its controversial nature than because of any real substance." How unfortunately true and perhaps a good basis for the title of this letter/book ... "The End of Reason." Ravi goes on to counter Harris' claims piece by piece pulling resources from his education, personal experience and in the power of the Word. I'm glad Christianity has Ravi on this side of the divisive argument. Ravi systematically lays out the reciprocal and logical side of the atheist argument but, ultimately, it is up to every individual to make his/her own decision on what to believe. Ravi is highly educated and at times, the tone of his argument may be interpreted as defensive rather than stating the facts and letting the reader make a choice. Jesus had a radical approach to delivering His message ... we should learn likewise. Here is the Truth - which can set you free - which can give you abundant life. Choose wisely.
An articulate and cool-headed discussion April 28, 2008
21 out of 23 found this review helpful
With The End of Reason, Ravi Zacharias has written a brief but articulate argument responding to "the new atheists." In just under 130 pages--a read of an hour and a half--he refutes many of the claims and charges laid against religion in general and Christianity in particular. But Zacharias's book is not just negative, arguing against atheism, he eloquently argues for belief in God. The result is a well-rounded, thoughtful little book and one of the best apologetic works in recent years.
The End of Reason is primarily a response to Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. Zacharias uses Harris as a starting point, skilfully countering not only Harris's arguments, but also those of other well-known atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.
The book is divided into several distinct sections. To begin, Zacharias notes the particular kind of atheist to which he is responding--those that make others "embarassed to be an atheist." He also describes his own past as an atheist and the suicidal hopelessness to which such thought brought him. The second and longest section describes this atheism in philosophical terms. Zacharias outlines this worldview's stance on life's origins, the meaning of life, morality, and hope in a painful world. In the third section, Zacharias sets out to confront and debunk a number of Harris's specific claims, whether of Christianity's inferiority to religions like Buddhism or Jainism or that the Christian doctrine of the virgin birth is erroneously founded on a mistranslation and the root of Christian "anxiety about sex." Zacharias also discusses Pascal's Wager--that the fulfilment brought by Christianity is worthwhile even if the universe turns out to be meaningless--and a number of other major issues.
The final section is perhaps the best, and the lynchpin of Zacharias's book. In the closing pages, Zacharias puts forward a simple, understandable argument for the existence of God and discusses the true meaning of the Eucharist, at once the most important rite of the Christian church and the symbol of the unity brought through Christ to believers around the world. And, in closing, Zacharias suggests that in the end the final decision will not be between atheism and religion, but between Christianity and Islam.
I found this book encouraging and refreshing--encouraging, because it fed my desire to not only believe but to believe for good reason, and refreshing because of its brevity and coolheadedness. What perhaps encouraged me most about the book is the overwhelming tone of reasonableness that Zacharias maintains throughout. Never once does he stoop to the level of crassness and vitriol demonstrated by polemicists like Harris. Instead, Zacharias proves by his own example the kind of peace and fulfillment of which atheism is devoid and only faith can bring. This book is a beautifully clear-headed respite from the current trend of "flame-war" argumentation.
The End of Reason is a good, quick read--like I said, I read it in perhaps an hour and a half. But packed into a very little space is the kind of brain-fodder on which meaningful reflection thrives. Christians will value this book as a defense of the faith; atheists will value this book as a civil counterargument in an ongoing debate.
Highly recommended.
|
