'' The End of Faith '' opens with a literary account of a day in the life of a suicide bomber &ndash; his last day . In an introductory chapter , Harris calls for an end to respect and tolerance for the competing belief systems of religion , which he describes as being " all equally uncontaminated by evidence " . While focusing on the dangers posed by religious extremist groups now armed with weapons of mass destruction , Harris is equally critical of religious moderation , which he describes as " the context in which religious violence can never be adequately opposed . " Harris continues by examining the nature of belief itself , challenging the notion that we can in any sense enjoy '' freedom '' of belief , and arguing that " belief is a fount of action '' in potentia '' . " Instead he posits that in order to be useful , beliefs must be both logically coherent , and truly representative of the real world . Insofar as '' religious '' belief fails to ground itself in empirical evidence , Harris likens religion to a form of mental illness which , he says , " allows otherwise normal human beings to reap the fruits of madness and consider them '' holy '' . " He argues that there may be " sanity in numbers " , but that it is " merely an accident of history that it is considered normal in our society to believe that the Creator of the universe can hear your prayers , while it is demonstrative of mental illness to believe that he is communicating with you by having the rain tap in Morse code on your bedroom window . " Harris follows this with a brief survey of Christianity down the ages , examining the Inquisition and persecutions of witches and Jews . He contends that , far from being an aberration , the torture of heretics was a logical expression of Christian doctrine &ndash; one which , he says , was clearly justified by men such as Saint Augustine . Going still further , Harris sees the Holocaust as essentially drawing its inspiration from historical Christian anti-Semitism . " Knowingly or not , " he says , " the Nazis were agents of religion . " Among the controversial aspects of '' The End of Faith '' is an uncompromising assessment and criticism of Islamism , which Harris describes as being a " cult of death . " He infers a clear link between Islamic teaching and terrorist atrocities such as 9/11 , a notion he supports with quotations from the Koran that call for the use of violence
9/11
September 11 attacks
The End of Faith