Fundamentalism Is the Biggest Menace towards Our Society

In the 21 century, it is hard to believe that there are still people who hold the Bible literally. Religion, in some ways, is a menace towards our society. Fundamentalism is one of the religions that undermine our modern society and civilization.

First of all, fundamentalism is anti-science. The fundamentalists treat the Bible literally and apply it to science. The Bible, as I have said, has no scientific values. It cannot be used as a science book to teach scientific facts. Many passages in the Bible, especially the Old Testament, were written according to authors' ancestors' ancient legends which consisted of unscientific views and insane imagination on some natural phenomena. Some of the legends were actually derived from some local mythology. And those legends were passed down after several generations until they were written down. The legends must have been modified and edited severely. Since those ancient authors did not know that much about science and God, they credited everything that could not be explained by modern science to God who actually did not do most of the things in the Old Testament. The things take place in the O.T. are contradictory to God's very nature, i.e. love and just. The Bible, or those ancient legends, should never be used in the science field.

Secondly, fundamentalism is irrational and anti-human. What makes human beings human? One of the things that we have is rationality. Fundamentalism is irrational and anti-rational, i.e. anti-human. The fundamentalists try to destroy our human mind and insert the Bible into our brain, therefore undermining our rationality with the Bible. The Bible can sometimes be used as a retardation pill. The fundamentalists, or most of them, teach us to use the Bible as the basic source of our life and thinking, instead of our rationality. When we ask those fundamentalists about a contradiction in the Bible, they cannot explain but say, "I don't know. We cannot completely understand God so there are things we don't know. We just believe. That's it. It requires faith. You just need to believe in Jesus." This is one of the signs of the irrationality of fundamentalism. They just "believe" without "thinking". There are many contradictions even within the Bible if you take it literally. They are and will never be able to explain them. Instead, they use their most retarded skill to cover them: "We don't know. We can't completely understand God." They do not doubt or think about the things in science and even the Bible per se, which indicates they have lost their doubting and reasoning abilities. Descartes started his philosophy by doubting everything from which he derives his most famous quote, "cogito ergo sum". We are by thinking and progress by thinking and reasoning. Progresses are made by those people who think and doubt. The fundamentalists, who do not think or doubt but hold the Bible as it is, are anti-progress and anti-human. They lock themselves and try to lock the others in the insane cage which they create by using the ancient crazy legends of the Bible.

Thirdly, the fundamentalists, in a way, are even unchristian. Again, the Old Testament was written by people who were living in those B.C. days. Their morality, compared to ours, is somewhat immoral and incomprehensible. Sometimes when we read the law codes, rituals and traditions of the ancient peoples, we would sigh, "Why were they so violent and immoral?" Because they were just developing their civilization. They would do things we consider immoral and violent. In their world, they were very normal and acceptable. Several years ago when I was traveling in a city, there was a 4 year old in our tour. One day when we were eating together, he saw a delicious dish and cried, "I want the whole dish! Nobody can touch it! It's mine not yours!" To us, this might sound selfish. To him, it was completely normal. Maybe after he grew up, he would recognize it was a selfish act and correct himself. It is just a progress. Babies grow and develop after a period of time. So do humans. Primeval peoples might sound immoral to us because they were in the earliest stage of development. The Bible was written by those people who lived in ancient times. Their God, who they created according their own imperfect imagination and understanding, was like them. He would do things that they considered "normal" and ethical." The God in the Old Testament is totally different from the God in the New Testament. The O.T. God is not love or just. The authors put their personalities into God. As Dawkins describes in his book, The God Delusion, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” The personalities, characters and natures of God in the O.T. is completely against God's real nature, i.e. love and just. Unfortunately, the fundamentalists worship a god that has these features in the O.T. and preach this insane freak as Jesus' Father. Hence fundamentalism is unchristian. And the things in the Old Testament should not be encouraged, worshipped and glorified. Unfortunately again, the fundamentalists are encouraging them with their irrational mind...

Fundamentalism can be summarized by 2 U's and 2 I's - unscientific, irrational, inhuman and unchristian. Let's stay away from the fundamentalist churches and develop our civilization.