Whenever Harris mentions God, he is not talking about the transcendent experience of God. He is not talking about the God that Father Thomas Keating talks about. He is not talking about Spirit or the Absolute nature of reality. He is referring to a mythic God -- a God that "is located not on this earth but in a heavenly paradise not of this world, entrance to which is gained by living according to the covenants and rules given by this God to his peoples."
Since I'm still technically a Christian (i.e. Catholic by virtue of birth), I picked up the book and started reading the book with some expectation that I would be offended with what Harris has to say. However, I soon found out that I'm in agreement with most of his arguments especially when it comes to the infallibility of the Bible, divinity of Jesus, creation and evolution, intelligent design, moral intuitions and even his stance on controversial topics like stem cell research...
In the meantime, I highly recommend the book, Letters to a Christian Nation, to people of all faiths. That is, people who are able to suspend their faith for a while and be tolerant enough not to get offended when their faith is subjected to critical analysis. That would be some people at stage 3 (exiting) and people at stage 4 and stage 5 in James Fowler's stages of faith.
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