In nearly all religions there are some people who feel that their religion should be unchanging and that people today have somehow gotten away from basic fundamentals of the old-time religion. Therefore, it is not uncommon for some people to stress the need to return to the mythical basic fundamentals of their religion: fundamentals with regard to ceremonies, codes of behavior, mythology, and belief. Those who loudly cry out for a return to the old-time ways of doing things, of returning to the mythical basics of the religion, are often called fundamentalists.
Fundamentalism today is most often associated with some of the world religions, particularly Christianity and Islam. In an article in Free Inquiry, Leah Mickens writes:
“While religion, like taxes and mosquito bites, has always been with us, fundamentalism is a distinctly modern development. Originally coined by conservative Protestants who resented attempts to demythologize ‘the fundamentals’ of Christianity, the word fundamentalist is now a catchall term for politically engaged reactionaries of any religious persuasion.”
Modern Protestant Christian fundamentalism grew out of a set of 90 essays published from 1910 to 1915 by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. In defending what was viewed as orthodox Protestant beliefs, the essays attacked religious concepts including Romanism (as Catholicism was then called), Mormonism, Christian Science, Millennial Dawn, atheism, and Spiritualism. For example, the essays included “Is Romanism Christianity,” “Mormonism: Its Origin, Characteristics, and Doctrines,” “Millennial Dawn: A Counterfeit of Christianity,” and “Eddyism: Commonly Called Christian Science.” In attacking Catholicism, for example, one essay states:
“But Romanism teaches men to hate, and, if they are able, to persecute to the death all those who will not receive it. Its deeds have been diabolical and murderous. It is ‘drunken with the blood of the saints.’ It has inscribed on the page of history warnings which appeal to the reason and the feelings of all generations.”
And
"Popery is emphatically anti-Christian: it is the adversary of Christ in all the offices which He sustains. It is the enemy of His prophetic office; for it chains up that Bible which He inspired."
With regard to non-religious concepts, the essays also attacked socialism, evolution, and science. Thus, there were essays such as “The Church and Socialism,” “The Passing of Evolution,” and “Decadence of Darwinism.”
The twelve volumes of the Fundamentals were widely distributed free. More than 300,000 sets were sent out.
While the term “fundamentalist” was originally used to describe Protestant Christians who interpreted the Bible literally and tolerated little criticism of it, the term has come to be applied to other religions as well. With regard to defining a fundamentalist, Paul Kurtz, in an article in Free Inquiry, writes:
“The best definition of a fundamentalist is (1) one who believes in the Absolute Truth; (2) is certain that his sect, cult, denomination, religion, or Church has a monopoly on Truth and Virtue; and, indeed, (3) believes that his church’s creed or dogma has been authenticated by God himself (or Jesus) as the only road to salvation.”
Kurtz also writes:
“A fundamentalist is a person who is committed to a set of basic beliefs or doctrines with dogmatic and inflexible loyalty.”
The primary characteristic of fundamentalism is the insistence that there is only one valid way of thinking and insisting that all people, regardless of their religion, adhere to this way. This applies not only to Christians, but to other religions as well. For example, Kurtz writes:
“The word was subsequently applied to so-called Islamic fundamentalists, who are so committed to the Qur’an that they tolerate no deviation from their understanding of it.”
People who follow a fundamentalist belief system must engage in the constant process of confirmation bias, that is, they must reject, a priori, any information that might contradict their beliefs. This means that a broad, comprehensive education with an emphasis on critical thinking must be opposed. In an article in
Free Inquiry, Leah Mickens writes:
“Followers of fundamentalist sects must walk a fine line between being savvy enough to disbelieve in the evil eye but not questioning enough to fall into the trap of ‘idle curiosity’ and begin doubting the foundation of their worldview. Indeed, what one often finds in fundamentalist groups is a hyper-educated laity comprised of individuals who are more knowledgeable about their faith tradition than many clergymen.”
When people “know” they have the answers, they stop asking questions. For fundamentalists, seeking answers to questions can be dangerous to their personal feelings of well-being and superiority.
