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2004 book by Sam Harris

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason is a 2004 book by Sam Harris, concerning organized religion, the clash between religious faith and rational thought, and the problem of intolerance that correlates with religious fundamentalism. Harris began writing the book during what he described as a period of "collective grief and stupefaction" following the September 11, 2001 attacks. The book comprises a general critique of all religious belief. The book was published August 11, 2004, and it was awarded the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction the following year. The paperback edition was published in October 2005. In the same month it entered The New York Times Best Seller list at number four, and remained on the list for a total of 33 weeks. In response to criticism and feedback regarding The End of Faith, Harris wrote Letter to a Christian Nation two years later.

Writing for The Independent, Johann Hari was largely positive, describing the book as "a brave, pugilistic attempt to demolish the walls that currently insulate religious people from criticism." Other broadly positive reviews have come from Natalie Angier, Daniel Blue, and Stephanie Merritt. Richard Dawkins has also endorsed the book.

In a review for Free Inquiry, the editor Thomas W. Flynn alleged that Harris had allowed his argument to become clouded by his personal politics and by his use of spiritual language. Harris later described Flynn's review as "mixed, misleading, and ultimately exasperating." Another review by David Boulton for New Humanist described the book as containing "startling oversimplifications, exaggerations and elisions." Critical reviews from Christians have included those by R. Albert Mohler, Jr. for The Christian Post, and Matthew Simpson for Christianity Today. Madeleine Bunting, writing in The Guardian, quotes Harris as saying "some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them." Bunting comments, "[t]his sounds like exactly the kind of argument put forward by those who ran the Inquisition." Quoting the same passage, theologian Catherine Keller asks, "[c]ould there be a more dangerous proposition than that?" and argues that the "anti tolerance" it represents would "dismantle" the Jeffersonian wall between church and state.

The paperback edition of The End of Faith, published in 2005, contained a new afterword in which Harris responded to some of the more popular criticisms he has received since publication. His essay "Response to Controversy" also clarified the context of an apparently troubling passage, which was that he was referring to very specific cases like that of the religiously motivated terrorist, where the attempt to kill a murderous terrorist would essentially constitute killing someone for a belief they hold, namely the belief that unbelievers of their particular faith should be killed.