Religion and Insurgency

[marct]

Hi 120,

Interesting links. One question: Under their categories of "fundamentalism", where are the subjects of "Fundamentalist Humanists?" or "Fundamentalist Scientists?" or "Fundamentalist Anthropologists?"

Didn't you know that no academic can be a "fundamentalist" ???

Seriously, it's one of the reasons why I dislike the current use of the term - it conflates religious fundamentalists, aka people who believe in the fundamentals of their religion, with reactionary bigots.

As a self-avowed "Fundamentalist Christian", I find that the "Fundamentalist Academic" has no problem scapegoating those of my ilk for the world's problems. And as long as they stick to religion, they can be as closed-minded, prejudicial and bigoted as they like, and still be heralded by our current culture as open-minded and intellectual.

Too true, and all part of PC "fundamentalism" . I think a large part of it has to do with a split in philosophy that goes back to Descarte (okay, it's probably routed in the Platonic / Gnostic split that comes to us as the Mind-Body "problem") ; basically a split between the "real world", which can be objectively studied and mapped by science, and those parts of "reality" that cannot be.

I have a suspicion, and only that mind you, that many academics are completely uncomfortable with the very idea of something that cannot be bounded and controlled, at least with the tools and methodologies they have created. I think that this level of "discomfort" is what is behind the drive to ridicule religious believe and replace it with their own "fundamentals".

Marc