Fundamentalism and fanaticism in America is like a ghost that continually haunts the moderate and rational minded people. Why has fundamentalism coninued to play a role in our modern society? The affects of fundamentalism are disastrous. It fights against scientific inquiry. It puts all questions under the umbrella of dogma and the mysterious. It answers nothing and requires everything from a person. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have recently blamed homosexuals, abortionists, and any other people who think differently than themselves on the attacks on the nation. One thing I would like to point out is the "us and them" phenemoena that pervades all of fundamentalism and fanaticism. This is exactly what Hitler did with the Jews, what bin Laden is doing with us, and Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson do to the majority of Americans. All these people have one thing in common. They propogate hatred among ourselves. How can one's sexual preference make a hijacker crash into a building and kill thousands of innocent lives. Do fundamentalists really believe most homosexuals choose to be ostracized from the mainstream of society? I don't think so. There is a lot of pain in the homosexual community because of this type of wreckless inconsiderate view. One thing that can help against fundamentalist dogmatism is to point out the errancy in the bible. I hate to say this, but the bible is NOT the word of God. One thing that Christian fundamentalists need to show is that the logic and harmony that science observes, points to the bible as well. This of course will not and can not be proven by the fundamentalist. Science has gathered EVIDENCE that the earth is older than what the bible says it is. Evolution is a reality. The laws of science are CONSISTENT and UNIVERSAL. The sun rises and sets on good and evil alike. This makes sense since by the Christian view God created everything and seems to treat everyone equally (except for maybe people in Bangledesh, for some reason God really hates them ... just kidding). It is when fundamentalist take on the literalist attitude that causes the problem. Any natural disaster has natural causes. The idea of an eternal hell from a loving and merciful God is completely ridiculous. It is very hard to reconcile these two points. I guess God isn't so loving after all. This in turn makes God a liar and mocks the word love. Many atheists have called the God from the bible, Biblegod for these reasons. Thomas Paine once wrote
When the fundamentalist comes knocking on your door let them know what they believe in. A god that is merciless, cruel and completely inhumane. A god that endorses the selling of one's daughter, human sacrifice, plagues and destruction for simply taking a census, all of which are backed up in the link of "Is the bible Inerrant?" Also, take a look at some of the other links and judge for your self if taking the bible so literally is healthy. I think it is important for preachers to extrapolate whatever spiritual messages they find in the bible. It is their responsability. No one has the exclusive on truth. We are all trying to get there. Without an open mind, one can not get a grip on reality. We need to accept each others beliefs without being dogmatic and unwilling to hear what others think. I hope Christians in the future become more enlightened and simply come to the understanding that all Christian sects are attempting to instill moral values and ideals. Till then we will have to deal with blind dogma and rigidity. I can only hope that none of these extreme views become mainstream.
May you all find truth
Here are some links to some very extreme views
I find Harold Camping to be the least hateful, but still holds some very strange ideas about predestination. Of course, predestination makes no sense whatsoever. Scientific evidence seems to suggest otherwise (read up on Quantum Physics). Predestination is completely unjust. If it were true, how can God justify sending people to an eternal hell for simply not being chosen by God (I don't recall ever being asked to be born. I did not wish to partake in this all or nothing game of heaven or hell). This presents God as a tyrant who relishes in the destruction of humanity because He chooses it to be this way. God can technically do whatever He pleases. And it pleases God greatly to send people to hell at least according to the Bible.