Sam Harris

To Mr. Harris and others:

I found "The End of Faith" very stimulating and worthy of much discussion. I agreed with much of what was written but I felt Mr. Harris ignored the immense role our (often unspoken and unacknowledged) anxiety about death has in promoting our widespread irrationality. Although he professes in a couple of places that we don't know what happens after death, indeed we do know. We disintegrate as do all forms of life and the atoms and molecules that make up our bodies are recycled in other forms of life. Our anxiety and unwillingness to gracefully accept this fact of nature underlies all our past and present efforts to preserve the dead and separate ourselves from the rest of nature.  And it has given religions their "carrot" to enroll converts by promising an afterlife (their "stick" being the threat of Hell -  another type of afterlife - should one become a heretic). Yes, there are many unknowns about our mind/brain to be investigated but none require revisions of our knowledge of physics. Recent evidence suggests some animals other than humans also possess a "theory of mind." And we have yet to fully define and understand consciousness but progress is being made. Clearly there are different levels/states of consciousness - witness fugue states, hypnotic states, and the lower level of consciousness of sleep-walkers, as well as the levels reached under the influence of drugs or meditation. But, again, none require we label any of these "spiritual."

Hello. I’m new here myself so I won’t presume to say “Welcome.” I think you will find yourself welcomed by the regular posters here. I post now to address the idea that religion may offer people comfort when they face death.

Christianity has a tradition of terrorizing people with images of the afterlife.

 
. . . from “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” . . . So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them.

The Christians I know seem just to ignore the doctrine of Hell; in my limited acquaintance, they are all closet (or open) Universalists. Christian doctrine seems much too cruel for these people. Like Sam, I encourage them to be honest about their beliefs and doubts, first with themselves and then in their statements to other people.

It isn’t hard to find descriptions of the horrors of Islam’s Hell either.

 
I n this article I shall describe the Islamic Hell or Jahannum which was an imagination of Prophet Mohammed used primarily for two reasons:

  1. To have a torture chamber for all the kafirs (unbelievers and people of other religions)
  2. To terrorize people into accepting Islam.

The purpose of Hell in Islam is not to punish the Muslim wrong-doers. Because, for them Mohammed will recommend paradise, beautiful virgins and young boys on the Day of Judgment. His recommendation is final and Allah cannot deny it. It is available to all murderers, rapists, arsonists, cheats, thugs, pickpockets and pimps provided they are following Islam. On the contrary, a flaming Hell is reserved only for all Hindus, Sikhs, Jews and Christians, no matter how pious and God-fearing they may have been.

This article is divided in two sections. The first section deals with the brutal instructions Prophet Mohammed gives to his followers about Kafirs and how to torture, maim and murder them ruthlessly.

The second section explains the various procedures devised by Prophet Mohammed’s sick imagination for torturing people of other religions in Hell.

Nothing could add to the horror of hell, except the presence of its creator, God. While I have life, as long as I draw breath, I shall deny with all my strength, and hate with every drop of my blood, this infinite lie.—Robert G. Ingersoll

Welcome!  I think your take is absolutly correct.  All religions, if you trace them far enough, stem from fear and ignorance.  Fear of death, primarily, and the unknown in general.  Ignorance of natural processes, and physical laws.

Nothing, absolutly nothing survives the physical death of the body, and I believe that absolutly.  All afterlife myths are just that, and can be easily dismissed if one just observes natural processes.

A trapeze artist can perform with greater daring if there’s a net below, or if he THINKS there is a net below.  Do people live bolder, more carefree lives if they think they have a spiritual safety net?

Let’s say, for the sake of discussion, that in the evolution of human intelligence we reached a level of self-consciousness where we started to fret about things that our predecessors, our less evolved ancestors, did not fret about.  Fear of death, fear of lightning etc., superstition and a host of other angst entered our noggins.  The Big Questions arose.  We started seeking the advice of shamans and priests - something no self-respecting rabbit would do.  Buddhas and Saviors appeared to fill a need - doctors for those who felt lost, uprooted from their Source.

Some sages noticed that wild animals, in general, do not exhibit angst.  They manifest an enviable equanimity.  If a Zen student asks his teacher, “What is an enlightened person like?”  A grandmotherly reply might be, “Like a tiger in the mountains; like a wild bird in the forest.”

This means, of course, full human capacity, without the ‘fall from Grace’ experienced by so many.  How does one reclaim, or uncover one’s natural-born potential?  How does one re-connect to the Source?  By spinning, or adopting an imaginary safety net?  By becoming dependent on some external teaching or entity?  What about the tiger, and the wild bird?

“They treasured it like a precious jewel and guarded it like their eyes.  They worked on it assiduously and never let it be taken lightly or defiled.”