Letter to a Christian nation.

Part 1

Sam’s arguments against Abrahamic traditions.

He makes some of the arguments against these Abrahamic traditions as discussed below.

First, in his letter to Christian nation, Sam Harris portrays Abrahamic tradition as a type of

religion that dwells in captivity of blood sacrifices. Sam in his letter claims that it is sad for a

child to be born only to be offered as a sacrifice to the invisible God. According to Harris,

Christians believe that the only way to rich harvests or keep the sun rising is by leading their

sons to mountaintops or fields and butcher, burning, or burying them as an offering to their

invisible God. He also argues that many children are unlucky to be born in these dark days of

Abrahamic traditions where the believers can’t differentiate fantasy from real-life situations and

many people have been blinded by Christianity and they can’t think beyond the fantasy world.

For example, in proverbs,13:25, 20:30, and 23:13-14 God commands the parents to beat their

children with rods and kill them whenever they confront the parents (exodus 21:15, Leviticus

20:9, Deuteronomy 21:18-21 mark 7:9-13 and Mathew 15; 4-7). In his letter to a Christian

nation, Harris argues that the God of Abraham is thirsty for blood and commands stoning to

death people for working on Sabbath, homosexuality, adultery, heresy, practicing sorcery,

worshiping idols, and too many other pathetic reasons. He is a murderous God whose happiness

is seeing people stoning others to death (Deuteronomy 13:6, 8-15).

He again argues that the ‘good news’ preachers have contributed to modern deaths. Instead of

Christians encouraging people to seek modern treatments to cure their disease all they do is

preach ‘dead’ hopes to people. According to him, instead of Christians whom he views as
Letter to a Christian nation.

hypocrites condemning sex, they should educate them on healthy sex and encourage the use of

protections like condoms since many people are dying of AIDS.

Secondly, Sam Harris argues that Christianity forces its believers to love and to be loved by a

murderous and torturing God who murders his children to save the world. He argues that misuse

of human life has been promoted and legalized in the bible. Sam wonders why a religion would

allow such torture to occur. He again argues that instead of Christians focusing to know on

scientific fields like medicine, meteorology, biology, physics, and other fields that explain their

wellbeing, they focus on imaginary beings and fantasy lives.

Harris argues that the scientific ignorance by Christians and their awkward following of this

‘stupid’ religion history is what makes Christians continue killing daily in the name of offering

sacrifices. Sam seems to oppose the Christian’s belief that Jesus Christ died for their sins and

argues that this ‘death’ is the origin of superstitious blood-shedding that Christians have been

practicing day in day out. According to Harris, the God of Abraham was the greatest murderer

whom he portray as a hypocrite. Harris says that at one point God of Abraham condemns murder

and sometimes rewards it. Some occasions where he condemns murders in the book of

Deuteronomy 12:31, Ezekiel 16:20- 22, and Jeremiah 19:4-6 while in places where he rewards it

is in the book of judges 11:29-40, exodus 22:29-30. According to Sam, God orders Abraham to

offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice without necessarily telling him that human sacrifice was

immoral (genesis 22:1-18). God also inspires human sacrifices during the Passover (Ezekiel

20:36). God himself is involved in killings (exodus 11:5). Currently, many people have been

attacked and murdered, little girls raped and butchered but instead of Christians reacting

accordingly, they believe that their imaginary God will punish the murderers.
Letter to a Christian nation.

Thirdly Sam Harris argues that the Bible is a collection of faulty books written by ‘foolish’

people. Here he criticizes Christianity by arguing that religious moderates tend to believe that

there is a great difference between fanatical and sensible religion which isn’t true. He argues that

the scripture itself spreads extremism because the Abrahamic God isn’t moderate. According to

him, one doesn’t have to be spiritually reasonable and instead has to be a religious madcap to

believe in hell fires (Mathew 25:41), to despise atheists, to harass perverts and many, etc. He

argues that one can still read the bible and find no reason to love his neighbor as the bible

preaches.

Harris argues that the authors contradict themselves in the bible and their arguments are faulty

and not based on any facts. For example, the authors of Mathew and Luke claim that Jesus was

born of a virgin something logically impossible. Isaiah 7:14 uses the word Alma which means a

young woman without any insinuation of virginity. He also argues that some evangelists had not

heard about virginity. John and mark seem disturbed about Jesus’s illegitimacy but they aren’t

confident to disclose his miraculous origin. Paul claims that Jesus originated from the seed of

David and according to the ‘flesh’, born of a woman and he doesn’t mention Mary’s virginity

status. Evangelists continued making folly contradictions about their writings and gives an

example of Mathew 27:9-10 which claims fulfillment of saying that it attributes to Jeremiah

which in contrast appears in Zechariah 11:12-13.

These ‘foolish’ authors promoted sexual immoralities something evident in the book of Exodus

21:7-11 fathers were free to sell their daughters to sexual slavery.

Harris criticizes the bible by arguing that the more you become conversant with the bible the

more you realize that heretics, apostates, and infidels deserve to be shattered to particles in God’s

affectionate equipment of justice. According to him, the bible was written by unlearned
Letter to a Christian nation.

individuals and people should concentrate on the world of science and technology and not on

past miracles which nobody is sure whether they even existed.

Part ii

Sam is an atheist and everyone can tell that from his arguments. In his first argument, he claims

that the God of Abraham rejoices in killings. Logically nobody will build a house and destroy it

unless there is a valid reason. God is the source of life something Harris can’t tell its origin.

Exodus 20:13 says that you shall not kill. This means that God himself valued the lives of human

beings. Sam arguing that God loves human sacrifice is very wrong because in the entire bible it

is only Abraham who was tempted by God to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Since God valued

human life he provided a ram instead (Genesis 22).

His second argument is also very wrong. This is because our God is very caring and protective.

Sam should read the bible carefully and understand every part not quoting the parts that justify

his wills. God saw that the world was suffering from immoralities and he brought his son to die

for the sins of the whole world (mark 15:25)

His third argument is also very wrong because God himself inspired the authors of the bible and

whatever is in the bible are the direct words from God himself who is the only sole creator of the

universe (2 Timothy 3:16).

Religion is one of the most important tools in our daily lives. In everyday activities, there are

problems individuals face whose solutions can only be solved by prayers. Philosophers will

claim to have big a understanding of religion and criticize it but when tables turn for them they

run to churches to seek prayers. Religion promotes morals. A society full of immoralities is a
Letter to a Christian nation.

dangerous society. Almost all aspects of life rely on religion and if anyone doubts that, he should

visit individuals in critical conditions and see how they beg for prayers and forgiveness.

Part iii

Religion is defined as worshiping and putting your faith in a supreme being like a personal God

or gods. I am a Christian and I strongly believe in the existence of God. In Christianity, we

strongly believe that Jesus is the son of God. Religion according to Christianity is one of the

sacred fields that nobody should question since it has too many hidden secrets that no science nor

technology can disclose.

Personally used to think that religion is something sacred that nobody should question. I viewed

religion as a very sensitive matter that should never be criticized. I used to have a premonition

that doubting whatever is in the bible could lead to evil things like deaths for questioning the

bible.

Surprisingly I have realized that some individuals can boldly question religion and nothing bad

happens to them. Harris boldly questions religion and reading his texts carefully one can tell that

he doesn’t believe in the existence of God and if he exists, he must be the most brutal Supreme

Being that has ever existed in the history of human beings.

As a Christian, I was surprised to learn that Islam has no great differences from Christianity.

They believe in the existence of God and his existence should never be questioned. The only

difference between the two is that Islam criticizes Christianity and wonders how a child would

be born of a virgin, and if Jesus was God why would he worship God.
Letter to a Christian nation.

What I would like to learn next about religion is, what is the origin of life, the origin of God, the

relationship between science and religion, and conflicts between science and religion.

Religion has impacted a lot in my life. As a Christian, I believe that all the laws all over the

world are advancements of the Ten Commandments. As a Christian teacher, I feel that no

Muslim school will ever accept my request to work with them even though religion preaches

against discrimination.

References