Do you have to be dumb to be a fundamentalist?

Question

Real advances in knowledge are accomplished when people observe evidence and then draw conclusions from it. Fundamentalists proceed the opposite way. They decide in advance what their conclusions must be, then cherrypick the evidence to try to confirm what they have already decided they will believe no matter what the evidence says. Thus they "know" that evolution cannot be a correct theory, oh no no no no no, it must be the work of the Devil since it isn't what their "holy" books teach. Do you have to suppress your own intellectual ability in order to remain a fundamentalist?

O.K., let's clarify.

"Fundamentalist" is not just Christian; it includes people who fly airplanes into tall buildings, etc.

In the Christian context, fundamentalism is quite clearly defined. It arose from the publication of a series of booklets around 1910-1915, called "The Fundamentals." The definition of fundamentalism is adequately spelled out as a set of five beliefs. Anybody can go to Wikipedia and see what they are.

In addition to the five beliefs of fundamentalism, there was later added the weird eschatology of John Nelson Darby known as Dispensationalism. This divides up all time into a series of events, and gave rise to Rapture theory.

Regrettably, very few fundamentalists seem to know where their beliefs come from. If they do not know and will not try to learn they deserve to be considered dumb, living in self-chosen ignorance.

Answer 1

They call this faith.

Answer 2

Sort of. Why? I'm just talking the Christian Bible here but there were reasons that the information in it was put there. So here's something I would call the Atheist Guide to the Bible.

So if you are a atheist should you ignore the Bible completely?
Not at all. For if you don't believe in a Supreme Being then who created it and why? The who would be the religious leaders of ancient Israel and Judah. Who also would have been influenced by the nations around them and by Eygpt where they came from.

And the why? To provide for the general welfare of the people is the main reason. The bible would have been written by hundreds of generations of religious leaders over hundreds of years and drawn on other religions that had existed for thousands. For originally religion was not just religion it was the law as well. Violate the religious laws and a rabbi judged your guilt and fate. And it also decided other legal matters as well. Israel really was a theocracy back then before King David.

But now why is it a problem for a atheist to violate the law in the Bible. Mostly because those religious laws were based on common sense and observations made by the religious leaders back then. Examples would be like Jewish dietary laws. Probably someone thousands of years ago noticed people who didn't eat pork were generally healther and lived longer. So they prohibited eating pork. And that was a wise thing to do considering pigs back then carried trichinosis. Same thing with sex and marriage.
Promiscious people wound up with STD's and VD of various kinds. And back then it killed you. Monogamy and marriage solved that problem along with a number of others. Homosexuality was banned for the same reason. Gays got sick and died. Monogamus heterosexuals in marriages tend to live long healthy lives.

So what's the point of all this? You ignore what the Bible says at your own peril. To ignore it is to ignore thousands of years of human experience. Old as it may be there were reasons that these religious laws were written and mostly they are still valid.

So back to your original question is it dumb to be a fundamentalist? Taken to extremes yes. But use a little common sense with what the bible says and it's a good guide to life in general.

Now the problem I see here with your question is that you are a fundamentalist youself. You have accepted the THEORY of evolution as gospel truth. Theory is the operative word. If you put the theory of evolution to the test it falls apart under scrutiny. It's got holes that need to be explained. That is why science has it classified as a theory. It can't be classified as the truth.

So how ironic eh? In asking this question you shown us who you are. A fundamentalist. You just chose a different religion.

Answer 3

Let me say this -
I've had some very unpleasant first-hand experiences with very aggressive, charismatic religious demonstrators, and it would certainly seem that they prefer their "answers" in the simplest form possible; black and white, right and wrong, no gray areas. Life is just so much happier for them if they do not have to exercise their brain and actually THINK. They want a preacher to hand them their answers on a platter, with book and verse references.

They need to be reassured that their lives and actions are all within the confines of "what the Bible says." If a particular topic is not actually covered in the Bible, they'll sure as heck find a way to "interpret" any particular verse of scripture that fits their opinion.

It's one thing to lead a decent life and be a kind human being, but too many fundies consider all the rest of human literature to be worthless, and that is simply not the case.

Answer 4

I'm afraid you fall into the category of people who don't know what a fundamentalist is. Which is okay, about 98% of America doesn't know what a fundamentalist is.

Fundamentalist: (in the Christian sense) Someone who believes the following, and the least educated person that went into writing these down was a lawyer, just fyi: (note, this is my paraphrased version, rather than spamming everyone with the full explanations)
1. There is one true God, who created and sustains all things
2. God is Infinite in power and knowledge.
3. God exists as one being, but in three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
4. God the Son came to earth in the form of Jesus Christ, was 100% God and 100% man, he lived a perfect life, and died for the atonement of man's sins against himself in order to provide a way for humans to be reconciled to God.
5. A person who accepts Christ's atonement receives the Holy Spirit, which enables us to follow God with our lives.
6. Salvation is a free gift of God.
7. People were created in the image of God, but through sin, have become impure and are separated from God without Christ.
8. Jesus Christ's sacrifice is the ONLY way to be reconciled to God.

There are some others, but that's the primary bulk of it. A fundamentalist is someone who believes these things. They often have other beliefs regarding God as well, things like baptism through sprinkling vs. dunking, stuff like that. But a fundamentalist holds these things as less important doctrine, which may be important and worth investigating, but are not essential for salvation.

In reality, often fundamentalists are more liberal Christians, but people who use the word in every day life believe they are only exceptionally conservative Christians, which is actually belief in the opposite. Fundamentalists are most concerned with learning what is true, rather than assuming what is true. If you are going to be a fundamentalist, you cannot live on the way the world believes, such as assuming things you hear second hand to be true. In reality, all Christians believe what Fundamentalists do, but some add things on top of what fundamentalists believe.

So in answer to your question, no, you not only don't have to suppress your intellect, you MUST excersize it to be a fundamentalist. Now you know! And knowing, is half the battle! (GI JOE!)

Answer 5

No, actually you have to be dumb not to know the meaning of the word 'fundamentalist'. I can only assume by your ignorant question that you're talking about Christians, being that you referred to a 'holy book'. Then again, you could be talking about 'fundamentalist' Muslims; or 'fundamentalist' Satanists...I don't know.
FUNDAMENTAL: 'serving as, or being an essential part of, a foundation or basis; basic; underlying: fundamental principles; the fundamental structure'.
IST: 'one who'
FUNDAMENTALIST: strict adherence to any set of basic ideas or principles.
In today's dictionaries, thanks to liberalist revisionist history, from which apparently our vocabulary has not escaped, this is associated with conservatives or Christians.
I guess it is a hateful thing, to stand on a set of holy principles which are designed for the good of all humanity and model one's life that way...maybe going with the flow, concentrating only on yourself and doing what everyone else does is the way to go. Maybe that's why the world is running along so perfectly.
Standing on my 'fundamental' views, by the way, makes me have to love people like you who want to start fights. And God loves you too. Hate your ignorance...love you.

Answer 6

What's interesting to me is that religious people (Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc) all say God can do anything -- yet apparently the one thing God CANNOT do is use evolution to create the world around us, leaving behind obvious facts to those with open eyes that the world as we see it today HAS been evolving over time. Funny, in a way...

Carl Sagan once said, "If God truly made the world in only six literal days, He sure left a lot of evidence to the contrary."

Answer 7

Not necessarily, but it helps.

Even intelligent people are capable of trying to rationalize their irrational beliefs. Indeed they can become quite good at it, and then they can be good at spinning the world in such a way that other religious people feel like their old books actually mesh with reality.

Answer 8

Fundamentalist are people with narrow minds. They are dumb or they do not want to use plain logic. They simply believe in faith and do not judge evidence or scientific facts to come to a conclusion.

Answer 9

Just an observation: If you want a genuine reply to your question from people with different view points, maybe you should try to minimizing your insults.

Answer 10

To me you have to be totally ignorant to not believe in God
& Jesus Christ! But,many are made ignorant by the evil
desires in their hearts,so they cannot see or accept the
truth.

Answer 11

I think they're bogarting the "good" drugs.