if a fundamentalist was actually well read would they be able to stay a fundamentalist?

Question

If they were well read in science and the history of various religions would it be possible for them to stay Fundamentalist?

Answer 1

I think that people are fundamentalists because they don't think any literature is better than their token book of faith. If they are Christian, only the Bible is worth reading and all other literature is trash. If the fundamentalist is a Moslem, then only their book is worthwhile and all other literature is a waste of time.

I think if everyone read everyone elses literature and tried to understand it, then people wouldn't be so dogmatic and hateful toward other faiths. The problem with that is that there isn't enough time to read all books cover to cover and grasp all of it properly. People have to choose what they read and in doing so, decide how they will believe.

I choose to be well rounded and try to read a little of everything...Jack of all trades, master at none. Reading is sort of a vaccination against fundamentalism.

Answer 2

They could remain a fundamentalist as long as they were not well-read in the history of Christianity. And no, I'm not talking about pagan origins or atrocities - its just that fundamentalism is the exact opposite of historical Christianity on nearly every point.

Interestingly, fundamentalists are loosing entire congregations to more historically grounded forms of Christianity.

Answer 3

If you mean by a fundamentalist that is someone who believes the bible, any amount of knowledge of other religions would not effect my bible belief at all. I do have knowledge of some other beliefs...so it's not as if I don't know anything about them.

Answer 4

Not if they were at least open to being "open-minded." Problem with a lot of fundamentalists is, they are total fundies and are afraid if the truth. I know, I was one of them.

When I finally realized I was worshipping a book rather than a god, and I looked past the fear of this god striking me down, I put the book down, walked away, and never looked back. As a minister, this was difficult for me to do, but I soon realized that all I had been taught to believe, all that I preached... was a lie and I was promoting it over and over again. Not only was I a fundie, I was creating fundies out of fear that god was going to kill me if I didn't reel them in, hook, line, and sinker... then scale them, cut their heads off, gut them, filet them, and serve them to this god on a golden platter.

I've been told that I couldn't have been a "real" Christian if I walked away from god. Take a minute to go back and read folks... I didn't walk away from god, I walked away from man's religion. god exists, religion is a farce that exists to gain mind control and power over it's followers. The "book" isn't what god is about. Hebrew tradition was handed down orally, they didn't need a book. Nor do I. Yeshua didn't need a book to teach his message of love, forgiveness, honor, and peace. Nor do I. And I certainly don't need a book to
live it.

Sure, I still read it on occasion, but I don't bother reading it literally. One cannot, if one knows the history behind it, the cultures it involves, and the patriarchal and violent eras in which it was written, translated, and published.

I believe that most who read the Bible without taking it literally, have realized that Christianity as well as "biblical truth" are highly manipulated and misrepresented in order to retain the myth of control and power over the people who fear to be freethinkers.

And now... let the condemning begin. ;-)

BTW... take a number. I've been condemned to hell so many times, I've racked up enough frequent flyer miles that I've traded many of them in on sunscreen, straw hats, coolers, sunglasses, beach towels, and a fireproof handbasket just for my trip to hell.

Peace and SPF 2000 Sunscreen,

Beki

The Christian churches were offered two things: the spirit of Jesus and the idiotic morality of Paul, and they rejected the higher inspiration... Following Paul, we have turned the goodness of love into a fiend and degraded the crowning impulse of our being into a capital sin. ~ Frank Harris

Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it? Why not all agreed, as you can all read the Book? ~ Soqoyewapha , "Red Jacket", Seneca

Answer 5

I don't have to be. Only what God himself has stated in His Bible (one and only AV1611) is the only thing that matters. If it didn't matter to Jesus, Jesus wouldn't have given us His Word.

But don't confuse Christianity and religion as being one in the same, it's not. Humanism fits well in religious churchs because everything is base on "I think" or "I feel". But when did humanism or religion ever save anyone from hell?

"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." John 17:17

"And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;" Colossians 3:23

"Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." 2 Timothy 4:2-4

"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." James 4:17

"Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man," Romans 2:1

Answer 6

Absolutely not. I'm what you would call a mainstream Protestant and I find their views - interpretations - in equal measure appalling and ridiculous. They don't have any historical sense of Christianity whatsoever. They exhibit a wide range of bizarre interpretation as a result. Lately,they want an atomic holocaust in the Mideast to trigger of the Rapture,as they refer to it. Hence their support of Israel,or more accurately a war between Israel and iran with nukes on both ends. Boom. Salvation arrives. They don't even know that the OT is jewish scripture.

Answer 7

Hell, if they were even well read in the history of Christianity they would not stay fundamentalist.

Answer 8

Yes I am both. That is I am well read, and still remain fundamental Christian.

Answer 9

I wouldn't think so. They might choose to act like a fundie because they have not the backbone to stand up for what they believe in. I have known a couple of people like that.

Answer 10

Yes I am