Why fundamentalism will fail

[ensho]

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/11/08/why_fundamentalism_will_fail/


A seemingly unstoppable force is being undone from the inside


-snip on history of christian fundamentalism-


However, the truth is that for all its apparent strength, the fundamentalist sun is setting on all horizons. Throughout the Muslim world growing numbers of people are becoming impatient with violent groups that, in the name of Allah, seem capable of killing but incapable of producing jobs, food, or health care. Observers on the ground report that popular support for the jihadist wing of the Taliban is falling off as it fails to address the real life problems that afflict people in Afghanistan. (The other parts of the Taliban are inspired less by fundamentalism than by tribal loyalties and a traditional aversion to foreigners.) Al Qaeda faces a similar dismal prospect. Dr. Audrey Kurth Cronin, a professor at the National War College in Washington and author of a new book, “How Terrorism Ends,” says, “I think Al Qaeda is in the process of imploding. That is not necessarily the end. But the trends are in a good direction.” In Iran, the fact that the clerics have resorted to beating and imprisoning their critics reveals the shakiness of their hold.

In America, the religious right, which started as a crusade, is becoming a niche. Randall Terry’s Operation Rescue, which stages demonstrations at abortion clinics, has just announced that it is nearly bankrupt. The shrillest TV evangelists are losing audiences to more moderate “evangelical-lite” preachers. Fundamentalist congregations are ceding ground to Pentecostals and mega-churches, which embrace a wider social agenda and teach the spiritual authority - not the literal inerrancy - of the Bible.

-snip-

The fading of fundamentalism marks a decisive change in global society. It has already freed Christians, Muslims, and Jews to explore what all three have in common as they now begin to cooperate in confronting nuclear weapons, poverty, and climate change. Thus, when a hundred Muslim scholars invited Christians two years ago to join in a quest for what they called a “Common Word’ on issues of justice, Christians from a wide spectrum of denominations responded favorably. Four important “Common Word” conferences have been held so far, involving hundreds of scholars and religious leaders. The king of Morocco has hosted a series of gatherings for mullahs, rabbis, and Christian clerics.

-snip-

ANOTHER REASON WHY fundamentalists are faltering today has to do with the world outside. The fundamentalist world view is unbending and monochrome, but today’s world is variable and multi-hued, and the plurality is more and more visible. Thanks to the increase of immigrants from Asia and the Middle East, mosques and pagodas now share streets with churches and synagogues in Europe and America. People of the previous generation could retreat into a culturally isolated community and pull down the shades, but their children live every day with a heightened, web-enhanced awareness of a diverse world.

-snip-

But a tectonic shift in religion is underway, and the fundamentalist moment is ending. A new and promising chapter in the long story of human faith is beginning. Its untidiness often reminds me of the exuberant earliest years of Christianity. Maturity comes with time. Future historians may look back on the 20th century as a time when something called “fundamentalism” interrupted, but only briefly, the age-old human search for a way to live in the face of mystery, and to envision what Martin Luther King called a “beloved community.”
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let us hope so

and thank the Fates and Muses

[Warpy]

1. The drives for purity and orthodoxy always destroy the far right

because they lead to constant purges of the less pure and orthodox.

Factionalism destroys the left.

[dalaigh lllama]

2. I sure hope he's right

[sam sarrha]

3. i think you're dreaming.. they externalize their problems, they're locked in an Apriori Loop. where

the conclusion comes first and the premise follows... where ever you try to help/input info, they always come to the same conclusion and you, by default of trying to help, automatically become the source of their problem.

this is because certain regions of the brain become dominate, and alter the persons perception of reality. this process is what people like Rush limbaugh, Savage, TV christians.. Coporate big box christians, dominionist ReThuglicans. and the Islamic Mullahs utilize to brain wash people for their own narcissistic purposes.

even when a person who is brain altered by propaganda and cult methods sees the light and wants to change ..it usually takes at least a year to reorganize the dominate regions of their brains..if they are doing it properly.

there is maximum resistance to this science today.. it threatens a lot of peoples realities, ..reduces a lot of religions simple cults. and it is way over due.