Quotes About Fundamentalism

Of course this will never be accepted by fundamentalists, but if Christianity bows to reactionary pressure to return to its authoritarian past it will be consigning itself to the dustbin of history. The modern world is simply too sophisticated to fall for the 'it must be true because it says so in the Bible' routine.

Fundamentalist preaching may and sometimes does induce a dramatically changed life, but its converts tend to be judgemental and elitist. And fundamentalism deadens the mind. Who can measure the psychological warping that can stem from constant exposure to a black/white, right/wrong, sinner/saved outlook on life?

History shows that the devout Muslim fundamentalists are one of the most lethal threats the world has ever known.

Whenever purity is paramount, terror is close at hand.

Fundamentalist Christianity appeals to pre-civilized, prudish tribal people who are not ready for urban feudal pleasures.

The great rabbis did not "create" Halakha: what the rabbis did was to codify and clarify the legal teachings, adapting them to changing social conditions. "The Rabbinic Halakha," writes Judah Goldin, "protected legislation from inflexibility and society from fundamentalism

Unless one is a religious fundamentalist and believes that man was created in the image and likeness of God, it is foolish to believe that human beings are exempt from biological classification and the laws of evolution that apply to all other life forms.

Bad religion is arrogant, self-righteous, dogmatic and intolerant. And so is bad science. But unlike religious fundamentalists, scientific fundamentalists do not realize that their opinions are based on faith. They think they know the truth.

We are living in a globalised world and most of us are worried stiff about powerful interest groups steadily pushing India towards obscurantist and fundamentalist beliefs and regressive economic policies.

I am concerned about how to reverse the process by which a fundamentalist right and a corporate elite were able to seize power in the United States.

I really don't want to offend anybody, but I find all forms of religious fundamentalism frightening.

coalitional dynamics would predict that whatever outsiders do is often little concern to fundamentalists. What matters is what other members of the group are likely to do.

To sum up, then, fundamentalism is neither religion in excess nor politics in disguise. It is an attempt to preserve a particular kind of hierarchy based on coalition, when this is threatened by the perception of cheap and therefore likely defection.

Religion and ethics were not always - or even frequently - mutually compatible. The demands of religious absolutism or fundamentalism or rampaging relativism often deflected the worst aspects of contemporary culture or prejudices rather than a system which both man and God could live under with a sense of real justice.

Religion and ethics were not always—or even frequently—mutually compatible. The demands of religious absolutism or fundamentalism or rampaging relativism often reflected the worst aspects of contemporary culture or prejudices rather than a system which both man and God could live under with a sense of real justice. Sol's

Religion and ethics were not always—or even frequently—mutually compatible. The demands of religious absolutism or fundamentalism or rampaging relativism often reflected the worst aspects of contemporary culture or prejudices rather than a system which both man and God could live under with a sense of real justice.

Even the most fundamental of the fundamentalists plug their ears when Jesus starts talking about birds of the air and lilies of the field. They know damn well he's just yarning, just making pretty speeches.

The histories of Islamic fundamentalism and European imperialism have very often been closely, and dangerously, intertwined. In a curious but very concrete way, the fundamentalists of both faiths have needed each other to reinforce each other's prejudices and hatreds. The venom of one provides the lifeblood of the other.

I can remember how when I was young I believed death to be a phenomenon of the body; now I know it to be merely a function of the mind—and that of the minds of the ones who suffer the bereavement. The nihilists say it is the end; the fundamentalists, the beginning; when in reality it is no more than a single tenant or family moving out of a tenement or town.

When I was young I believed death to be a phenomenon of the body; now I know it to be merely a function of the mind - and that of the minds of the ones who suffer the bereavement. The nihilists say it is the end; the fundamentalists, the beginning; when in reality it is no more than a single tenant or family moving out of a tenement or a town.

The fundamental problem with fundamentalists was that no matter how much touchy-feely love and peace their religions professed, in practice they always turned into prescriptions for moral contempt. Reasons to hate were given divine sanction... If you consider somebody's behaviour or beliefs an affront to your God for which they will suffer an eternity of pain and humiliation, it makes it kind of hard to then treat that person as an equal human being.

So when dogmatic atheists assume that science has all the answers, or imagine that it soon will, they are no more immune than the most literal religious fundamentalist to the deceptive enchantment of certainty.

I do not, like the Fundamentalists, believe that creation stopped six thousand years ago after a week of hard work. Creation is going on all the time.

I remain optimistic. What we've seen in Europe and the rest of the world is that freedom has a much stronger attraction than radical fundamentalism.