Well, yes, we do have to watch for religious extremism where the value of human life is denigrated by fundamentalist belief. (Similarly as we do with hardcore atheism.) But you're right: the attitudes of the people in the first article are extremely condescending and hostile towards anyone of faith: whether they be moderate or fundamentalist.
Ah, yes... "Enlightenment".patchworkmindSeptember 1 2005, 23:06:18 UTC
To my mind, rarely ever has a word been so perverted for use. The drive to stamp out the paradigms of others for no other reason that it is inconvenient, dismissed or unappreciated flies in the face of the tolerance, understanding, compassion and humanity claimed to be had by the puritans of secularism. Hypocrites, every last one.
'Fundamentalist belief' is not exclusive to the religious, as is a very common (and very disturbing) misconception. Switch 'liberal' for 'Christian' and maybe 'conservative' for 'Muslim' - and possibly 'environmentalist' for 'Jewish' - and you find a whole new set of plainly fundamentalist, cross-denigrating extremists bent on the defeat and destruction of the others. No. To limit the notion of fundamentalism to religion is to oversimplify (and overlook a large part of) the problem
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Re: Ah, yes... "Enlightenment".gunderpantsSeptember 1 2005, 23:13:40 UTC
I did mention in my post about the problems of hardcore atheism, which is just as bad as fundamentalism. Believe me, I've run into them online and at uni.
Re: Ah, yes... "Enlightenment".patchworkmindSeptember 1 2005, 23:46:08 UTC
I didn't mean to come off aiming that section in my post at you. I was responding generally to that section of academe, politics, media, professionals and the masses who tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater on the subject. I used your term 'fundamentalist belief' because I like it better than the widely-used 'fundamentalism'.
My alma mater is overrun with the strangest creatures, church-going (Catholic and Methodist and Presbyterian) secularlists. They are very active in their respective churches, but they are quite anti-religion when they set foot on the school grounds and in the classes. I haven't been able to nail them down in discussion as to how this happens and what they really believe. Not yet.
Re: Ah, yes... "Enlightenment".gunderpantsSeptember 1 2005, 23:58:27 UTC
Well, to an extent I can kinda understand it: ultimately you can't please everyone if you introduce religious teaching into areas of politics and education. (Different to religious discussion, of course.) I certainly don't support politicians who try and push faith on their constituents, especially if they do other things which are entirely hypocritical for Christians. (Tom Delay and John Howard in particular.) This isn't to mean that I'm against politicians who bring religious discussion into their line of work or into the public arena, but people are going to see through it if the only basis for doing so is to push their agenda.
Similar to secularism, really. Some places do need to have an air of secularism to them, but if it's at the expense of debate or discussion, or respect about religion, then that's similarly a problematic area.
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'Fundamentalist belief' is not exclusive to the religious, as is a very common (and very disturbing) misconception. Switch 'liberal' for 'Christian' and maybe 'conservative' for 'Muslim' - and possibly 'environmentalist' for 'Jewish' - and you find a whole new set of plainly fundamentalist, cross-denigrating extremists bent on the defeat and destruction of the others. No. To limit the notion of fundamentalism to religion is to oversimplify (and overlook a large part of) the problem ( ... )
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My alma mater is overrun with the strangest creatures, church-going (Catholic and Methodist and Presbyterian) secularlists. They are very active in their respective churches, but they are quite anti-religion when they set foot on the school grounds and in the classes. I haven't been able to nail them down in discussion as to how this happens and what they really believe. Not yet.
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Similar to secularism, really. Some places do need to have an air of secularism to them, but if it's at the expense of debate or discussion, or respect about religion, then that's similarly a problematic area.
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