The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists [Hardcover]

Ravi Zacharias (Author), Lee Strobel (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 29, 2008

When you pray, are you talking to a God who exists? Or is God nothing more than your 'imaginary friend,' like a playmate contrived by a lonely and imaginative child? When author Sam Harris attacked Christianity in Letter to a Christian Nation, reviewers called the book 'marvelous' and a generation of readers---hundreds of thousands of them---were drawn to his message. Deeply troubled, Dr. Ravi Zacharias knew that he had to respond. In The End of Reason, Zacharias underscores the dependability of the Bible along with his belief in the power and goodness of God. He confidently refutes Harris's claims that God is nothing more than a figment of one's imagination and that Christians regularly practice intolerance and hatred around the globe. If you found Sam Harris's Letter to a Christian Nation compelling, the book you are holding is exactly what you need. Dr. Zacharias exposes 'the utter bankruptcy of this worldview.' And if you haven't read Harris' book, Ravi's response remains a powerful, passionate, irrefutably sound set of arguments for Christian thought. The clarity and hope in these pages reach out to readers who know and follow God as well as to those who reject God.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

For over thirty-five years, Ravi Zacharias has spoken all over the world in great halls and universities, notably Harvard, Princeton, and numerous universities internationally. He is listed as a Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford university. He has appeared on CNN and other international broadcasts. The author of several books for adults and children, he powerfully mixes biblical teaching and Christian apologetics. His most recent works include Walking from East to West, a memoir; The Grand Weaver, an exploration of God's intention in both the ordinary and the startling elements of life; and The End of Reason, a rebuttal of the claims of the so-called New Atheists. His weekly radio program, Let My People Think, is broadcast on 1,692 stations worldwide, and his weekday program, Just Thinking, is on 412. He is founder and chairman of the board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with additional offices in Canada, Hong Kong, India, ? SPANISH BIO: Ravi Zacharias, master en divinidades de Trinity International University, es un orador reconocido asi como presidente de Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. Su programa semanal de radio, Let My People Think, se retransmite por mas de mil quinientas emisoras de todo el mundo. Es autor de varios libros para adultos y ninos. Su ultimo libro, De Oriente a Occidente, fue editado por Editorial Vida en el ano 2006. El Dr. Zacharias y su esposa residen in Atlanta, Georgia.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (April 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310282519
• ISBN-13: 978-0310282518
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #55,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For over thirty-five years, Ravi Zacharias has spoken all over the world in great halls and universities, notably Harvard, Princeton, and numerous universities internationally. He is listed as a Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford university. He has appeared on CNN and other international broadcasts. The author of several books for adults and children, he powerfully mixes biblical teaching and Christian apologetics. His most recent works include Walking from East to West, a memoir; The Grand Weaver, an exploration of God's intention in both the ordinary and the startling elements of life; and The End of Reason, a rebuttal of the claims of the so-called New Atheists. His weekly radio program, Let My People Think, is broadcast on 1,692 stations worldwide, and his weekday program, Just Thinking, is on 412. He is founder and chairman of the board of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with additional offices in Canada, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. Dr. Zacharias and his wife, Margie, have three grown children and reside in Atlanta.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

124 of 157 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An articulate and cool-headed discussion, April 28, 2008

By 

Jordan M. Poss (Georgia, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists (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.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, August 16, 2011

By 

James Cunningham (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists (Hardcover)

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.)

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Emotional arguments, unsubstantiated claims and bad science, January 22, 2012

By 

Patrick S. Herring "the evaluator" (Albuquerque, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists (Hardcover)

The forward is by Lee Strobel, author, who writes:
Together with a wave of other books promoting militant atheism, authored by Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens and others, these books by Harris have confused spiritual seekers and even rocked the faith of some Christians.
* How are these authors in any way militant? As a result of their writings has anyone been tortured, killed or imprisoned?

Ravi Zacharias' (RZ's) letter opens with an imaginary story of a mother committing suicide because her son recognizes that Christianity is factually false. RZ uses the subject of suicide repeatedly to evoke strong emotions.

Elsewhere within RZ's letter, here are some excerpts (in quotes) I found significant:

"I have always found it fascinating how relativists who say they love the idea of tolerance ultimately reveal themselves to be among the most bigoted."
* 1) an unsubstantiated claim and, 2) not at all accurate in reference to the atheist authors he previously mentioned. Scientists he targets discuss at length moral behavior arising from evolutionary psychology which has shown moral and ethical behavior to be largely fixed rather than relative and is, in fact, highly predictable.

"Academic degree after degree has not removed the haunting specter of the pointlessness of existence in a random universe."
* Much of the universe isn't at all random and much of it we still don't fully understand but invention of a deity won't accomplish anything except console ourselves that a spirit inhabits our gaps in knowledge (Gap Worship). Also, how does RZ know highly trained atheist scientists live pointless lives?

"His America would ban our belief, leaving room only for the sovereignty of his materialistic or matter-driven vision of all human existence."
* This is just inflammatory and dishonest. Harris never advocates banning Christian belief.

"As I read Sam Harris's books, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation, I felt as though I was being dragged through a vortex of emotion--from incredulity to outrage to a deep sadness."
* Much of RZ's objections are laced with his emotions that lend nothing to the argument.

"Is it possible, however, that Harris's disrespect is justified because in an atheistic world, love for one's fellow human beings is a foreign concept?"
* Presumptive and emotional

"Contrary to what atheists imply, the dead weight of their beliefs leads to a heartless, pointless, and hollow existence."
* Another unsubstantiated assumption that lends no explanation as to why belief in a deity makes existence more meaningful and why the lack of a deity is a dead weight.

"Atheism Led to My Suicide Attempt"
* RZ must assume that many atheists will attempt suicide because he did.

"Now, after reading the likes of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett in their anti-theistic outbursts, I have concluded that there are big bucks in the atheist racket as well."
* Not even comparable! A handful of atheist authors will make only a tiny fraction of that generated by the Protestant/Catholic religious industry. Most of Dawkins' work is in the field of biology with atheism advocacy as a sideline. Sam Harris is a neuroscientist.

"Big Bang cosmology, along with Einstein's theory of general relativity, implies that there is indeed an "in the beginning.""
* Very simplistic and dated. In the century since Einstein published his theories, physics theory has changed radically. Humans can't easily conceive of existence without a beginning because we lead time-linear, 3-dimensional lives.

"As we know it now, all order did not evolve. Nothing in science supports this contention. Something had to exist as an explanation in itself. Nothing does not produce something--and never has."
* RZ here is way outside his field of expertise which is, after all, divinity. He has a master's degree in divinity. Science shows conclusively that in many cases order evolves out of chaos. Every snowflake self-assembles in beautiful 6-point symmetry out of a chaotic mess of water vapor.

"One would have to conclude that the chance of the random ordering of organic molecules is not essentially different from a big fat zero. Perhaps that's why they call it a singularity, because it is without definition or empirical explanation."
* No, it's a singularity because it proceeds to infinity.

"If life is random, then the inescapable consequence, first and foremost, is that there can be no ultimate meaning and purpose to existence."
* Harris never said that life is random and in fact, in his book "The Moral Landscape", makes a case for limited choice.

"Not only does atheism's worldview lead to the death of meaning; it also leads to the death of moral reasoning."
* Science is all about finding meaning. Moral reasoning is well studied and even predictable.

"Has Harris read about Hitler's own spiritual journey?"
* Hitler was an opportunist who sometimes cited elements of his Christian faith as reason to exterminate Jews.

"What would he say if two hundred years from now someone says that genocide against Christians can be traced back to the anti-Christian writings of Sam Harris?"
* An incendiary statement used to evoke emotion. What about the millions of those stabbed, burned, broken on the wheel, crushed, lashed, hanged, flayed, starved and drowned by Christians through the ages. It's still happening among Christians in Africa.

"there is no logical explanation for how that intuition toward morality could develop from sheer matter and chemistry."
* Correct. It also involved evolution of Homo sapiens.

"Let me put it in philosophical terms:
- Objective moral values exist only if God exists.
- Objective moral values do exist [a point Harris concedes in his letter].
- Therefore God exists."
* This is the old apologetic "argument from morality" for the existence of God. Several scientific fields are currently studying the origins of human and other animal morality and ethics. In fact in Sam Harris' own book, "The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values", his goal is to show how moral truth can be backed by "science", or more specifically, empirical knowledge, critical thinking, philosophy, but most controversially, the scientific method.

"Therefore, we must agree with the conclusion that nothing can be intrinsically prescriptively good unless there also exists a God who has fashioned the universe thus."
* This is the old apologetic "argument from degree". About it, Richard Dawkins said, 'That's an argument? You might as well say, people vary in smelliness but we can make the comparison only by reference to a perfect maximum of conceivable smelliness. Therefore there must exist a pre-eminently peerless stinker, and we call him God. Or substitute any dimension of comparison you like, and derive an equally fatuous conclusion.'

"So on his own terms as an atheist, Sam Harris is either engaging in moral reasoning that is only valid if God exists, or he is being irrational in his assertions."
* The old "Moral law requires a Lawgiver" argument.

"Even Richard Dawkins, Harris's hero, admits that science has no methods or authority for deciding what is ethical."
* Not true. In fact, Dawkins dedicates a chapter to it in "The God Delusion".

"Only in Christianity is the privilege given both to believe and to disbelieve without any enforcement."
* Not true. Eternal agony in a fiery hell is the penalty for disbelief and thus belief is rigidly enforced.

"Has he not seen the violence that takes place during trade union strikes in Europe? There were atheists present, you know. Has he not heard of the riots in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles and in other places? There were atheists present, you know."
* RZ thinks European trade union strikes and the LA riots were atheist riots.

"When I was at Oxford recently, I was told about an article written by Richard Dawkins in which he advocated that any prospective student with a creationist point of view should be refused admittance into Oxford."
* No citation given but even if it's true, so what? Dawkins is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and thus has the obligation to express an opinion about whether or not a prospective student should be admitted if he advocates fantasy rather than scientific theory.

"The difference between someone who calls himself or herself a Christian and yet kills and slaughters and an atheist who does the same thing is that the Christian is acting in violation of his or her own belief, while the atheist's action is the legitimate outworking of his or her belief."
* The old "No True Scotsman" defense. He: "Ian is a Scotsman." She: "Does he eat haggis?" He: "No." She: "Well no true Scotsman would refuse haggis."

"Today it may be a failing business that is in need of God's intervention. Tomorrow I may want to be healed from cancer. The day after
that, I may even want a loved one to be brought back from the dead."
* So God ignores starving Christian children in Africa but saves his failing business? Also, I'd like to see the resurrection trick.

"Sam Harris betrays a rather amazing prejudice. How he has gotten away with making slanderous statements in his book --accusing Muslim communities of "misogyny, their anti-Semitism, . . . forced marriages, honor killings, punitive gang rapes, and a homicidal loathing of homosexuals"--boggles the mind (see Letter, 84).
* RZ criticizes Harris for this but then a few pages later in his own book... Read more ›