Religious fundamentalists have existed for centuries, but it is only in the later 20th Century where religious fundamentalism has emerged as a political force capable of challenging existing orders and regional security. In its modern form, Fundamentalism takes religion out of the personal and private sphere and places it very much in the public and political.
In short, the phenomenon constitutes the politicization of religion where secular politicians are judged against religious criteria, such as poor Sadat when he was assassinated for not being Islamic enough, however half-witted and dubious such a criteria is. Political failures are also seen to be remedied by a return to traditional religious beliefs and political, economic, social orders determined by traditionalist religious teachings.
Although there were certainly antecedents, it was not until the 1970s that politicized religion has gained the kind of currency and value that would catapult it into a global force of some reckoning. And more unnervingly so, it has emerged in quite disparate parts of the world, and amongst virtually all major religious communities, from Algeria to Amsterdam, from Cairo to Jakarta, from the Caucasus mountains to the gleaming cities of the USA.
So my questions to you are, what is your take on religious fundamentalism? Do you see it as a remedy for the dire conditions some countries are in now? Will it emerge fully fledged as an ideology or will it simply wilt away into oblivion? Will it cause the same sort of polarization as the Cold War did? Or just about anything related really.
Do note that this discussion isn't about the validity and truth in religion, bring your tiresome and mundane pre-written rants about religion elsewhere.
I see no problem with religion being used for immorality (christian view). I mean the founding fathers used the bible to for our laws, and things have been fine from those. I guess you probably want those laws to be gone since some of them have to do with religion.
lol, you're assuming that because we are atheist that we automatically want christian based laws gone? that is far from what we want.
a better way to define it is we want christian biased laws gone from the system. that way people are more equal, and people who aren't christian won't be treated as less of a citizen.
as for the fundamentalism part, there will always be people who take things way to seriously, and people will always take what they read from their holy book and interpret it as literall. no ammount of time will change that, and no amount of education will as well. the only way it can change is if the entire religion was removed, because fundamentalism is dependent upon the religion, kind of the same way a parasite is dependent upon the host.
