End Of Reason [Hardcover]

With The End of Reason, Ravi Zacharias has written a brief but articulate argument responding to "the new atheists." In just under 130 pages--a read of an hour and a half--he refutes many of the claims and charges laid against religion in general and Christianity in particular. But Zacharias's book is not just negative, arguing against atheism, he eloquently argues for belief in God. The result is a well-rounded, thoughtful little book and one of the best apologetic works in recent years.

The End of Reason is primarily a response to Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. Zacharias uses Harris as a starting point, skilfully countering not only Harris's arguments, but also those of other well-known atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.

The book is divided into several distinct sections. To begin, Zacharias notes the particular kind of atheist to which he is responding--those that make others "embarassed to be an atheist." He also describes his own past as an atheist and the suicidal hopelessness to which such thought brought him. The second and longest section describes this atheism in philosophical terms. Zacharias outlines this worldview's stance on life's origins, the meaning of life, morality, and hope in a painful world. In the third section, Zacharias sets out to confront and debunk a number of Harris's specific claims, whether of Christianity's inferiority to religions like Buddhism or Jainism or that the Christian doctrine of the virgin birth is erroneously founded on a mistranslation and the root of Christian "anxiety about sex." Zacharias also discusses Pascal's Wager--that the fulfilment brought by Christianity is worthwhile even if the universe turns out to be meaningless--and a number of other major issues.

The final section is perhaps the best, and the lynchpin of Zacharias's book. In the closing pages, Zacharias puts forward a simple, understandable argument for the existence of God and discusses the true meaning of the Eucharist, at once the most important rite of the Christian church and the symbol of the unity brought through Christ to believers around the world. And, in closing, Zacharias suggests that in the end the final decision will not be between atheism and religion, but between Christianity and Islam.

I found this book encouraging and refreshing--encouraging, because it fed my desire to not only believe but to believe for good reason, and refreshing because of its brevity and coolheadedness. What perhaps encouraged me most about the book is the overwhelming tone of reasonableness that Zacharias maintains throughout. Never once does he stoop to the level of crassness and vitriol demonstrated by polemicists like Harris. Instead, Zacharias proves by his own example the kind of peace and fulfillment of which atheism is devoid and only faith can bring. This book is a beautifully clear-headed respite from the current trend of "flame-war" argumentation.

The End of Reason is a good, quick read--like I said, I read it in perhaps an hour and a half. But packed into a very little space is the kind of brain-fodder on which meaningful reflection thrives. Christians will value this book as a defense of the faith; atheists will value this book as a civil counterargument in an ongoing debate.

Highly recommended.

For the sake of immediate disclosure, I self-identify as an atheist -- thus my opinion will surely be considered suspect by some parties. Nevertheless please bear in mind that my views are highly sympathetic toward theism and I do not truck with the militant "new atheists".. This book caught my eye because religious apologia (and the philosophy of religion generally) are topics of great interest to me, it was short, easy to read, and inexpensive.

However: For someone who comes to the discussion from an atheistic perspective, wishing to understand and perhaps be convinced by the theistic point of view, this book simply doesn't offer much. It is one long letter addressed to atheist popularizer Sam Harris, against whose work Zacharias has taken no small insult; in response he offers a great deal of indignant heat but not much light.

Most irritating, I suppose, is his treatment of the problem of evil. There *are* good theistic answers to this but he chooses a well-trod canard -- the implication that atheists have no objective moral standard and thus contradict themselves when positing any extant evil -- which is not only unconvincing but invalid. The user of the problem of evil intends to show that an omnimax god cannot exist *on its own terms*. The atheist's own moral standards just aren't relevant, so this whole discussion becomes an ad hominemistic misdirection.

There are further problems: he does not argue for the proposition that an atheist cannot have an objective moral code, which may be true but isn't necessarily obvious. Many philosophers would disagree -- some virtue ethicists, egoists, and intuitionists at least, and even some forms of utilitarian. Even if atheists couldn't in principle have an objective moral code the falsity of atheism would not necessarily follow. And that argument lurks around every corner of this book -- atheism is false because it cannot ground morality. (Throw in a few more or less oblique argumenta ad Hitlerum for good measure.)

Well, if that's true, *show* it. Zacharias's keenness for telling rather than showing gives this book very little apologetic value. Perhaps the already-convinced could be entertained by his treatment. Genuine questioners should look elsewhere.

(Aside: another reviewer says that atheists should look at this book as a "civil counterargument", but frankly I don't see what's civil about this book. An atheist reader could easily get the impression that Zacharias believes him to be downright *evil* or at least an empty, amoral creature slouching towards eventual attempted suicide. He *begins the book* imagining a family torn apart by the works of new atheists, and implies that Harris doesn't care one whit about the damage he would cause [in such an imagined scenario]. Zacharias is responding to incivility on the part of Harris and others, so maybe it's the correct tone to effect. But civil it sure as heck ain't.)

I knew before I sat down to write this review that the judgment this book received would be polarizing. You can pretty much bet that the majority of the reviews would be split between one star and five stars. A quick survey of the rating provides just such a result. Atheists hate it and dismiss it out of hand. Christians love it and give it the perfect rating. The truth about the book falls between these two positions.

The book is nothing more than a response to Sam Harris and his anti-religion publications. With a broad brush, Harris outlines what he believes to be the irrationality of religion and calls on people to leave faith behind. Ravi Zacharias penned this book as a response to those assertions. His stated purpose is quite clear. Christianity is not an untenable position for a reasoned person to hold. He works through many of Harris' charges to expose the flawed logic which appear sound on the surface but fail to hold up under scrutiny. Did Zacharias accomplish his goal?

The book succeeds in large part by providing Christians with confidence that the Biblical worldview is not without support. Drawing on the fields of philosphy, science, logic, and history Zacharias shows that there is another side to the argument. While not delving into great depth on any issue, the author does raise important points which are handled in more depth by other authors. This is a general overview rather than a specific point by point dismanteling of Harris. It serves as a good introduction to the subject - not too technical in its language but weighty in its ideas. A good read.

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