Atheist Evangelist

Islamic scholars say that Harris has committed an equally egregious blunder with the Koran. He fails to understand the book in its historical context, and he cherry-picks the text for its most merciless verses.

"He couldn't be more wrong about the Koran," says Reza Aslan, the "No God but God" author. "In the history of the prophetic biblical canon that starts with Genesis, the Koran is by far the most tolerant of the views of other religions."

It is true, Aslan says, that the Koran is brutal on polytheists, but there aren't a lot of those around these days. Harris, he claims, is making the same mistake that Muslims in Arab countries make when they locate the soul of Christianity with evangelicals who speak in tongues.

He has confused the outermost for the core. And ironically, Aslan notes, Harris is making the same mistake as fundamentalists, by taking the scripture at its literal word.

Harris says that even if everyone decided that none of these texts is divine, it would still make sense to ditch them, since it would only be a matter of time before someone picked one up and said, "Hey, the creator of the universe hates homosexuals."

"We have to start seeing religion for what it is," he says, "a failed science, a failed description of the world, a holdover of discourse by our ancestors, who had no basis to demand good evidence and good argument."

Of course, if religion were merely failed science, it would have been supplanted by real science centuries ago. But it has survived and thrived through a revolution in our understanding of the solar system as well as our bodies and our minds, which suggests that it offers something that deduction, data points and reason do not.

"Religion is never going to go away," says Aslan, "and anyone who thinks it will doesn't understand what religion is. It is a language to describe the experience of human nature, so for as long as people struggle to describe what it means to be alive, it will be a ready-made language to express those feelings."

Praise and Pans

After the debate at the New York Public Library there is a question-and-answer session, then Harris heads to a table, sits down and starts signing books. A line forms. You get the sense that many here feel like they are about to meet a celebrity. One of them is Michael Galinsky, who has a copy of "Letter" in his hand.

He sounds thoroughly unimpressed.

"I'm an agnostic," he says, after getting an autograph, "but I found what Harris said kind of juvenile. By discounting all religion the way he does, that's basically like saying, 'All of you are idiots.' I feel like he ought to extend some kind of olive branch. Otherwise there is nothing to talk about."

Behind him is Louis Perry, a 61-year-old with a Southern drawl. As he hands Harris a copy of "Letter to a Christian Nation," Perry gushes about how the book changed his life. In a brief chat on his way out the door, Perry explains why.

Thanks to Sam Harris, he had a religious epiphany in reverse. He was raised a Southern Baptist but never really connected to any of the doctrine. Everyone around felt a deep spiritual nourishment from church services, and Perry always left feeling as though he'd missed the point.

"For years, I thought there was something wrong with me," he says. "I was always asking 'Why don't I get this? Why don't I get this?' And then last year I read 'The End of Faith,' and Sam basically explained it to me -- there is nothing to get."