Reply #23: Not a shortcut [View All]

[Az]

I have dealt with a lot of fundies. I would not say their beliefs are a shortcut. In fact a lot of times they create rather convoluted paths to arrive at them. They are extremely reasoned within the construct of their belief set. They show a great apptitude at understanding other's reaction to their belief as well.

About 500 years ago western civilization entered into a new phase we called the age of enlightenment. Many things have been said of this age but one of the more interesting aspects was the fall of moral absolutism. Diversity of societies had forced the acceptance of tolerance as a moral concept. That is you had to accept that others may not believe the same thing as you do. Prior to this most societies were monolithic. One nation, one belief, one moral set of guidelines.

The age of enlightenment fused aspects of humanism to mainline Christianity. This notion seems lost on people these days. They see this notion of tolerance as something inherant to Christianity. They even find passages supporting such notions. But 1500 years of history suggest otherwise.

Tolerance does not come easily or naturally to belief systems. The very notion behind them is that they are right and by definition everyone else is wrong. Thus we see the return of the fundementalists. They do not tolerate. They define everything that is not with them as evil. Evil cannot be tolerated. They may abide because the laws of the land are not with them yet, but they do not tolerate.