Sam Harris’ Straw Man
Why waste time analyzing a book by Sam Harris? Because I can. Also because when someone writes a book called Letter to a Christian Nation , posturing as an intellectually superior rationalist explaining the truth to a bunch of gullible rustics, someone else should call fraud by pointing out the numerous ways he reasons fallaciously and substitutes for actual logic mere showy rhetoric. First, let me say that in writing this book, Sam Harris speaks in two voices. Speaking as an ethicist, Harris makes some good points, especially when criticizing those evangelicals who cannot distinguish following Christ from following the Leader of the Republican Party. However, when dealing with more general matters philosophical—not to mention theological—Harris shows himself to be theologically ill-informed and logically untrained (or at t...