Faithless: Attack on God-Loving people who attack each other

Type :

Term papers

Pages :

7 pages

Format :

.doc

Published date :

01/09/2009

Category :

Arts & media

Sub category :

Journalism

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Summary :

Introduction.
Early writings of Foster.
Hitchens on opposition to religion and its effects.
The debate on religion and faith.
1. The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris.
Purpose and primary arguments.
1. Harris' purpose for writing The End of Faith.
2. An interview with Laura Sheahen.
3. The nature of a belief system.
Should you hold your beliefs based on faith?
1. Various arguments and conclusions of Harris on those who hold their beliefs based on faith.
2. The idea of liberalism or moderation within a religion.
Christianity and a history of violence.
Islam and violence.
1. Trends in certain countries.
2. Islam is not the peaceful religion that most assume it to be.
3. Peters' disagreement with Harris.
Implications.
Limitations.
Conclusion.

Abstract

A 2006 Gallup poll found 92 percent of Americans surveyed could be classified as those who believe in god, 4 percent are not sure, while only 3 percent are convinced that god does not exist (Newport, 2006b). The wide consensus, however, stops there. Gallup polling further revealed that 40 percent of Protestants and 45 percent of non-Catholic Christians believe that the Bible is the literal word of god, and must be taken as is, "word for word" (Newport, 2007, 1). Moreover, in the debate of creationism versus evolutionism, 46 percent of Americans believe that god created the human being in its present form, sometime within the last 10,000 years, and that the human being has not evolved at all since that point (Newport, 2006a). Among Abrahamic religions, only 51 percent of Americans believe that Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship the same god (Harris Poll, 2006). Finally, only about half of Americans, 49 percent, believe that Muslims who live in the United States are loyal to the country, and 39 percent of Americans agree with requiring Muslims in the United States, even U.S. citizens who are Muslim, to carry a special identification that identifies them as Muslim, as a measure to protect further terrorist attacks (Saad, 2006).