IMAGINARY FRIEND

SAM HARRIS

on

HURRICANE KATRINA

and

PRAYER

        “It is safe to say that almost every person living in New Orleans at the moment Hurricane Katrina struck shared...belief in an omnipotent, omniscient, and compassionate God. But what was God doing while Katrina laid waste to their city? Surely He heard the prayers of those elderly men and women who fled the rising waters for the safety of their attics, only to be slowly drowned there. These were people of faith. These were good men and women who had prayed throughout their lives. Do you have the courage to admit the obvious? These people died talking to an imaginary friend.” 

(Letter to a Christian Nation, p. 53)

FAITH - Part 2

AMIEL, HENRI FREDERIC, Swiss philosopher and poet (1821-1881):
•“The efficacy of religion lies precisely in what is not rational, philosophic, nor eternal; its efficacy lies in the unforeseen, the miraculous, the extraordinary. Thus religion attracts more devotion according as it demands more faith -- that is to say, as it becomes more incredible to the profane mind.” (Journal In Time, quoted from Laird Wilcox, ed., "The Degeneration of Belief" 1985)

•“A lively, disinterested, persistent liking for truth is extraordinarily rare. Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not to be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism or doubt.” (Ibid.)

AUGUSTINE, SAINT, Roman religious figure, philosopher, Numidian Bishop of Hippo (c. 354-430):
•"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe."

BUCK, PEARL S., American author (1892-1973):
•“I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in human beings.  Like Confucius of old, I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and the angels.”

FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN, American statesman, scientist, author (1706-1790):
•“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason: the morning daylight appears plainer when you put out your candle.” (Poor Richard's Almanack, 1758, Chapter "On Virtue, Vice, God, And Faith")

INGERSOLL, ROBERT G. American humanist, author, orator (1833-1899):
•“The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation, and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be relieved only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance, called ‘faith.’” (The Gods)

HARRIS, SAM, American author (b. 1967):
•"Faith is generally nothing more than the permission religious people give to one another to believe things strongly without evidence." (Letter to a Christian Nation, 2006)

HOFFER, ERIC, American author, philosopher (1902-1983):
•“Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves.”