Attributes of fundamentalism

[CapelDodger]

from elliotfc:

Isn't everything a reaction to something else?

No. There's a difference between "reaction" and, say, "response", "solution" or "innovation".

Fundamentalism has been around thousands of years, where are these inevitable changes that you are talking about?

All around you and all through history.

Actually, the contemporary world was set up after fundamentalism, so if anything the contemporary world is reactionary, and not the other way around.

That doesn't even rank as sophistry. "Contemporary" means "of the period", not just our current period. Fundamentalism reacts to the changes that are occurring in its own period.

Are you saying that commitment is bad?

Perhaps not always, but usually. Unquestioning commitment, beyond the influence of reason or experience, to a superstition, a political philosophy, a charismatic leader or whatever is almost always undesirable.

 

[c4ts]

Fundamentalism is dangerous in that it distorts the moral nature of religion to comply with the manipulative aspects of it. With enough self alienation, fascist doctrines look like faith and loyalty, and injustices carried out by fundamentalist leaders look like the will of God. There is always a demand to stay with the group and never leave, to serve without question, to punish and expell those who continue to think differently despite this. Only with the eradication of true independant thought can opposites become one another, until war is peace, freedom is slavery, accusation is truth, disagreement is oppression... you get the idea.