What is a fundamentalist?

[ned flandas]

Hi people

I am a Christian and I see the word "fundamentalist" banded around the forums a lot.

What makes someone a "fundamentalist"?

Chris

 

[Beady]

No matter the religion, political party, whatever, a Fundamentalist is someone who believes the "party literature" as it is written, with no or minimal interpretation.

The term "Fundie," however, is generally reserved for extreme fundamentalist protestant Christians.

PS It is quite possible to be a fundamentalist Christian and think the Fundies are whack jobs.

 

[UndercoverElephant]

Hi people

I am a Christian and I see the word "fundamentalist" banded around the forums a lot.

What makes someone a "fundamentalist"?

Chris

It means they have chosen one way of looking at the world, they believe that their way is the one and only correct way and that it must form the basis of everything else they think and know. They also think everybody else should agree with them. As such, it includes the most extreme scientistic skeptics. Their religion is scientific materialism and the fundamenalist version is called "scientism". It equally applies to political fundamentalists like some extreme marxists. I think "literalist" is a specific subset of "Christian fundamentalist", but the terms might as well be interchangeable.

 

[kurious_kathy]

It means they have chosen one way of looking at the world, they believe that their way is the one and only correct way and that it must form the basis of everything else they think and know. They also think everybody else should agree with them. As such, it includes the most extreme scientistic skeptics. Their religion is scientific materialism and the fundamenalist version is called "scientism". It equally applies to political fundamentalists like some extreme marxists. I think "literalist" is a specific subset of "Christian fundamentalist", but the terms might as well be interchangeable.

Okay so what about the difference in personality types? This certainly comes into play when it comes to anyones perspective or view on important issues. I have always been an intense, type A, extreme personality type. So the only thing that has changed recently as of the last couple years is my world view. I have changed sides and decided I wanted to believe God and agree the Christian world view is the correct one.

Here's a take on What Is Christianity... http://www.atstracts.org/readarticle.php?id=46

And now with this perspective it brings things full cirlce in my life. I am still the same person or personality type, but my thinking is more what I would say well rounded. So this is what people now use to call me a fundy, but that's now exactly how I perceive it.

 

[Bruno Putzeys]

The term fundamentalism dates from the 1890's, when a subsection of American Evangelical Christians wanted to return to the origins of their religion. They called themselves Fundamentalists. The movement was marked by a literal interpretation of the scripture. Christian fundamentalists are still happy to call themselves that, but regret the more widespread application of the term to other religions or even non-religious movements.

In any case, someone who believes their religion used to be "more pure" in the past and tries to return there, usually by a strict adherence to the scripture, can be called a fundamentalist.

The application of the term to scientific materialism does not fit accepted usage.

 

[Bruno Putzeys]

Kathy, the question was "how does one define fundamentalism". Not "how does one value it."

 

[drkitten]

And now with this perspective it brings things full cirlce in my life. I am still the same person or personality type, but my thinking is more what I would say well rounded.

We'll have to take your word for this. You've never displayed any evidence of "thinking," well-rounded or otherwise, in your posts on this forum.

 

[drkitten]

It means they have chosen one way of looking at the world, they believe that their way is the one and only correct way and that it must form the basis of everything else they think and know. They also think everybody else should agree with them. As such, it includes the most extreme scientistic skeptics.

Not in standard usage, it doesn't.

The most general definition of "fundamentalism" that I've seen involves a rigid adherence to a limited set of "fundamental" religious principles. I've never seen any serious source that attempts to generalize this beyond the religious arena (mostly for historical reasons, since the term "Fundamenatlism" originated as a self-applied label in American Protestantism).

Key psychological aspects of fundamentalism that are implicit (i.e. not explicit) in the definition are an intolerance of those who do not follow those same principles, and authoritarian defense of those same principles (typically by reference either to Scripture or by the authoritative pronouncements of leaders). This alone sufficces to distinguish "fundamentalism" from "extreme scientific skepticism," since scientific skepticism is by definition anti-authoritarian and data-controlled. Maxwell's laws aren't true because they're the revealed Word of Maxwell, but because every experiment that's ever been done agrees with them.

This particular aspect of authoritarianism has caused a lot of rather comic and rather pathetic miscommunications on the Randi forum in particular -- many are the people who come on to the JREF with the apparent intention of attacking Randi in particular in the hopes of destroying his credibility, not realizing that Randi is in no way an "authority" for the skeptic movement, but simply a well-regarded gatherer of evidence.

Getting back to religious "fundamentalism," most of the "fundamentalists" one is likely to encounter derive either from the American Protestant tradition or more recently from Islamic tradition -- as such, there's no single set of beliefs that one must subscribe to be a "fundamentalist."

 

[Freethinker]

Kathy, the question was "how does one define fundamentalism". Not "how does one value it."

Hell, it was closer to an answer to a question than anything else she posts.

 

[kurious_kathy]

Kathy, the question was "how does one define fundamentalism". Not "how does one value it."

Riddle me this, If one doesn't value it, then how can they define it?

 

[Genesius]

Riddle me this, If one doesn't value it, then how can they define it?

So you're saying the people who write dictionaries value everything in the book?

oy vey. . .

 

[UndercoverElephant]

Riddle me this, If one doesn't value it, then how can they define it?

I detest red lilly beetles. I wish they'd all drop dead. (Well, all the ones in England, anyway).

1) Here's a definition of Red Lily Beetle:

http://www.essexfieldclub.org.uk/lilybeetle_survey.htm

2) I don't value them. They are a pain in the arse.

 

[drkitten]

Riddle me this, If one doesn't value it, then how can they define it?

You know, I don't especially "value" triangles, but I can easily define them. They're three-sided polygons.

 

[FireGarden]

To be fair to kathy,
If you don't value something and dismiss it quickly then you'll probably leave with a lot of misconceptions about it.

But you can pay long and hard attention to things you don't value. A lot of school work demanded that.

 

[The_Fire]

Fundamentalism: What you get when you cross kurious_kathy with pat robertson and a suicide bomber.

 

[ponderingturtle]

To be fair to kathy,
If you don't value something and dismiss it quickly then you'll probably leave with a lot of misconceptions about it.

But you can pay long and hard attention to things you don't value. A lot of school work demanded that.

And you can study things you find revolting. Like trying to find out what makes someone a serial killer or what caused an accident that killed many people.

Also valuing something does not really mean you must be studying it and trying to reach a broad understanding of it.

 

[Dr Adequate]

Riddle me this, If one doesn't value it, then how can they define it?

Riddle me this. If you don't know what something is, how can you know what value it has?

 

[writerdd]

Speaking from my own experience as a former born-again Christian....

Fundamentalists, evangelicals, Pentecostals, born-again Christians. It doesn’t matter what you call them or what they call themselves. The small differences in doctrine and practice are negligible. What ties all of these groups together under the blanket term “fundamentalist” is a belief in the “five fundamentals” of Christianity:

• Inerrancy of the Scriptures
• The virgin birth and the deity of Jesus
• The doctrine of substitutionary atonement through God's grace and human faith
• The bodily resurrection of Jesus
• The physical return of Jesus and the rapture

Sometimes the last point is replaced with "the miracles of Jesus.

Technically, fundamentalists are subset of evangelicals, as are Pentecostals. Fundamentalists are more focused on obeying the rules and law of the Bible, while Pentecostals are more concerned with spiritual experiences. There are so many sub-groups, that it's almost impossible to be detailed about anything. Fundamentalists are, as far as I have observed, are conservative and even reactionary in their politics. Evangelicals, as a larger group, may be conservative or liberal.

More recently, the term fundamentalist has come to refer to people of any religious belief who are dogmatic, legalistic, and literalist in their interpretation of the scripture of their religion, and who disregard any evidence or philosophy that is not in agreement with their holy book.

 

[Foster Zygote]

Hi people

I am a Christian and I see the word "fundamentalist" banded around the forums a lot.

What makes someone a "fundamentalist"?

Chris

Good question. I sometimes wonder if "fundamentalist" is used at times when "extremist" would be more appropriate. Take Islam for example. The media refers to terrorists as "fundamentalists" yet my Muslim friends assure me that these people are so far from the fundamentals of the Koran as to seem alien to them.

Steven

 

[Hux]

Might it be that an extremist, in the religious context, is prepared to undertake violence or violent behaviour in his cause?

A fundamentalist is a religious person identified by the absolute depth of his conviction to dogma?