Book review
Scientific values - the moral landscape? P
rogressive Christians have long argued that science and values are
fundamentally different:
they accept proven scientific findings, but they argue that these do NOT have any relevance to their values. Sam Harris argues the exact opposite case: that scientific findings have total relevance to all values. As a neuroscientist he contends that every value is based on a corresponding physical reality, i.e. a neurone pathway in the brain. Controversially he rejects the notion of moral relativism. If we base our values on scientific evidence we should and must claim to be morally correct. Then we should and must make a judgment as to what is the best course of action to bring happiness to as many people as possible. Harris claims that he can define “happiness” in a sufficiently rigorous way. Harris gives many examples. We
have only the space to consider one here. He claims health to be an absolute good. However, the Bush administration refused to fund stem cell research because the
15 Peter Sutherland
discusses Sam Harris’s claims in his latest book
Christian fundamentalists regarded this as morally wrong (interfering with God’s decisions about us). Yet, based on the scientific research done so far, degenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer’s may be able to be at least slowed down if not totally eradicated. So there is a scientific and moral right to carry on this research.
His book is based on his PhD in
neuroscience, which he carried out at UCLA (the University of California in Los Angeles). He also has a degree in philosophy from Stanford University. So now he analyses and reflects on neuroscience through the eyes of philosophy. Its academic origins may explain
the extensive footnotes and bibliography. However these do not affect the text for the general
Humanist reader. It is written in a clear, non-jargon ridden style. There are only 191 pages, which is short for a book of this type. There is an introduction, followed by five chapters: 1. Moral Truth 2. Good and Evil 3. Belief 4. Religion and 5. The Future of Happiness.
Members may remember
Harris’s earlier books The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation, both of which made a big impact. However Harris does have his
critics. Canon Giles Fraser of St Paul’s Cathedral accuses Harris (Review in The Guardian, 9 April) of being an atheist equivalent of an evangelical Christian: absolutely
www.humanism-scotland.org.uk
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