WHAT MAKES US MORAL?
Science, religion, and the shaping of the moral landscape: a Christian response to Sam Harris
By Craig Hovey. SPCK. 112 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978 0 281 068 982
The book’s intentions are clear enough from the subtitle: this is a challenge to Sam Harris, one of the so-called ‘New Atheists’.
With Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and the late Christopher Hitchens, he completes what might be called the ‘atheist-Gang-of-Four’! With such a goal the book commends itself to EN readers immediately. The New Atheists are vociferous in their denunciations of the historic Christian faith (and all religious belief) but their arguments rest on sand. The book’s exposure of the two main pillars of Sam Harris’s approach is helpful — first, that all religions are bad because they are based on ‘superstition’ (i.e. not the facts of science) and, second, that a universally satisfying and successful morality can be assured only through a scientific approach (i.e. not a religious one). So, if your interest is ‘Sam Harris’, this is a book you should read. The author is Assistant Professor of Religion at Ashland University in Ohio and his speciality is Christian ethics. He is well qualified for the task in hand.
