Book Review: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

It is unfortunate that this book is so highly read by academics and elite business professionals ranging from those in Silicon Valley to Wall Street. Dr. Harari, an atheist, has written a book that is not only logically flawed but written in a way with only contempt for religious - especially Catholics. 

Writing for The Catholic Thing, Francis Beckwith summarizes the logical errors in some of the professor's thinking in his piece: Materialistic Dogmas and Bad Conclusions.

I picked up a copy of the book and flipped through only a few pages where I read some of the many attacks against the Catholic Faith including:

• "The Catholic alpha male abstains from sexual intercourse and raising a family, even though there is no genetic or ecological reason for him to do so"
• "The Catholic Church has survived for centuries, not by passing on a celebacy gene from one one to the next, but by passing on the stories of the New Testament and of Catholic canon law."
• "According to this story, if a Catholic priest dressed in sacred garments solemnly said the right words at the right moment, mundane bread and wine turned into God's flesh and blood. The priest exclaimed 'Hoc est corpus meum' and hocus pocus - the bread turned into Christ's flesh...millions of devout French Catholics behaved as if God really existed in the consecrated bread and wine."

Firstly, Dr. Harari seems to forget that there is a reason for priests to abstain from sexual intercourse and raising a family so that they are more conformed to Christ's life, are able to focus entirely on ministry, and in fulfillment of Christ's own words (cf. Matthew 19:12)

Secondly, Canon Law was only first created by Pope St. Pius X in 1917. The Catholic Church exists to transmit the Faith as taught by Christ Himself and the Apostles and to transmit the Sacraments instituted by the Redeemer. It has not survived for centuries by passing on canon law. Any historian should find that claim absurd.

Thirdly, Dr. Harari's blasphemy against the Real Presence stands in sharp contrast to the many Eucharistic miracles confirming Transubstantiation (Miracle of Lanciano, Siena, Orvieto, etc) as well Christ's own words.

This atheistic work is both historically inaccurate, blasphemous, opposed to divine revelation, and founded on faulty logic. It is fit only for the trash heap or the burn pile.