Answer 113

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Question 113

Do you feel that Fundamentalism is in some way detrimental to the growth of religion (in general)?

Well I would say the answer is yes, but that exactly how it is yes depends on the the level of the question you look at.

On the most obvious level, Fundamentalism has tendency to throw everything into Black and White and not just in an over simplified morality. Fundamentalists in any religion tend to enforce a rigorus dogmatic world view that makes the dogma of the Catholic Church seem positively loose in comparison. The why is depricated or even castigated in order to shove the what down the throat. True understanding being replaced with simple quotations from scripture without any true understanding involved. As a result thinking people inside the sect are alienated, not just from the sect but from the whole of Christianity or even the notion of God. While I am certain that atheists come from many backgrounds, I would not be in the least suprised if a disproportionate number of atheists come from a fundamentalist background.

Fundamentalism also discourages real spiritual growth (for the reasons that they discourage questioning). Yet even if one does not believe in a deity or an eternal soul, it seems that most people feel at least some need for spirtual growth through silence and reflection. While such spiritualism cannot strictly be called religion, the damage fundamentalism may cause it is very real.

Finally of course there is the divisiveness that fundamentalists cause in a religion. It is that that all fundamentalists agree with each other and when they do it is usually in attack on the mainline branches of a religion. Thus such fundamentalism threatens to pull apart that which it claims to want to bring together.

: Growth of religion? Hmph. The fundies are doing the world a : favor by driving people away from Christianity in general.

Or perhaps they are creating a new well of intolerance that will ultimately threaten atheists and moderate theists alike. Remember Fundamentalism tends to be strongest is less well educated groups, or in other words the masses. (Bill McHale)

Every ideology which becomes rigid and militant lives on borrowed time. The question is just how much blood needs to be shed to rid humankind from it for good. There is no measure to the debt we owe M. Gorbatshev for letting the Cold War end in a "Velvet Revolution". It could have been another French Revolution, War of Independence, or October Revolution --- only much more nuclear. (Matthias Weiss)

No doubt about it, I think fundies are throwbacks in regards to cognitive ability. They definitely give religion a bad rep that it could do without, and they cause things to be done in the name of religion that should not be done at all. I am confident that fundies or fundie-ism will eventually be weeded out by the "a fool and his money are soon parted" law of capitalism, and good riddance to them. Their main purpose is to serve as negative examples. (Roger Burks)

Yes, I think it puts a negative view of religion in the public eye, making those who are uncommitted feel uncomfortable with the religion thing, and making our work of weaning humanity away from their 5000-year-old pacifier oh so much easier! (Nemo #1331)

I think Fundamentalism is discouraging many intelligent thinking xains. Fundamentalist churches are the churches that are growing because they are collecting believers who have jumped their way from other churches. For thinking people the church does not provide answers for them in the way that it once did. So they jump outside of serious religious worship altogether.

With the departure of thinking people the church is increasingly a collection of fundamentalist idiots. A brain drain. (Peter Kelly #1417)

Definitely. The basic tenet of any fundamentalist is that the whole world can be understood and manipulated if you adhere to/understand a few basic fundamental ideas. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the world is a very complex place, that there is rarely a simple solution to *any* problem, let alone *all* problems.
So people learn that, in order to navigate this complex world, they need to have some flexibility in their thought processes. Your typical religion, however, works to reduce that flexibility. The only u sefulness a religion has is in telling us how to cope with the world. It does that by simplifying our world-view, by replacing a world of grays with black and white examples. This helps in some situations, but it can make a muddied mess in other situations.
Fundamentalists, by insisting that *everything* can be understood by mapping the world into a few black and white basic ideas, just highlight the inadequacies inherent in every religion. i.e. Some things are so complex that, by mapping them into a more compressed world-view, you lose too much detail, so your solution falls short. (Carl Funk #1229)

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