* Minister of Magic

J.K. Rowling speaks of fundamentalists who tear down the Harry Potter series as being a work of the Devil:

"Fundamentalism is, 'I will not open my mind to look on your side of the argument at all. I won't read it, I won't look at it, I'm too frightened'. That's what's dangerous about it," she continues, "whether it be politically extreme, religiously extreme.... In fact fundamentalists across all the major religious, if you put them in a room, they'd have bags in common. They hate all the same things, it's such an ironic thing." Full article ...

* Fundamentalism at Vridar

Neil Godfrey
has been writing a series on 'fundamentalism' that includes his personal thoughts and experiences. Highly read-worthy. He writes:

January 16, 2008, "Despite the losses of my years in fundamentalism and cultism there were also some very positive gains. I can’t say I would do it all over again, but I cannot deny the experiences in the more extreme end of religion have given me an outlook, an understanding and I think even a compassion that I suspect I may not have so fine tuned without some of those experiences."

FUNDAMENTALISM, FATHER AND SON, AND VERTICAL DESIRE

By Ruth Stein

INTRODUCTION

In this paper I describe a certain state of mind which, conjoined with cultural and group processes, leads to fundamentalism, and with further developments, to coercive and violent fundamentalism. Hallmarks of this state are a sense of utter certainty, a feeling of being in the right, hermetic consistency, and highly rhetorical reiterations of Truths. I describe how the simplification of complexities into binary oppositions (basically of good and bad) not only creates order out of chaos and vagueness, but also constitutes a "vertical" homoerotic quest for God's love. These processes of ordering and desire are supported by the need to sacrifice, by masochism and coercion, and are enacted by increasingly severe purification processes. It is usually assumed that the religious quest is a search for meaning, but, as will hopefully become clear, this quest is at the same time a series of transformations of fear. In this latter sense, the fundamentalist state of mind originates from what may be likened to an extreme and long-extended form of what we experience at those moments and hours when anxiety and fear, or shame, overwhelm us and reduce us to helplessness, a painful sense of smallness, and the feeling of being at the mercy of greater powers than ourselves. Full paper ...

* Our Mother, Who Art in Heaven ~ Tamas Pataki, "Against Religion" ~ 10 Characteristics of Religion

"The preconditions for belief in God, Tamas Pataki suggests, are set in the first months of life, when the infant feels anxious when separated from the mother. His only wishes are to be free of hunger and pain, and to believe in the mother as infinitely provident and, later, that she knows everything. 'It is remarkable, is it not,' writes Pataki, 'that these attributes—omnipotence, omniscience and omnibenevolence—so necessary in the regulation of infantile narcissism and wellbeing, are precisely the key perfections attributed to God?'" TIME Magazine, May 24, 2007, Andrew Chapman

Neil Godfrey extracts and summarizes Pataki's ten characteristics of religious fundamentalism, as follows, and fleshes them out more fully on his website.

Godfrey writes, "Fundamentalism is a term applied to various Islamic, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Judaic groups, and even to some secular (economic and environmental) groups. All different.

"Yet Tamas Pataki in his newly published Against Religion lists what he sees as “criss-crossing similarities — family resemblances — in certain basic beliefs, values, and attitudes” (p.27) that characterize the various religious groups labelled “fundamentalist”.

1. They are counter-modernist.

2. They are “generally assertive, clamorous, and often violent”.

3. They are “the Chosen”, “the Elect”, “the Saved”.

4. Public marks of distinction are needed to maintain their sense of superiority and distinctive identity.

5. There is only one true religion and one correct way of life; and these must be defended against inroads from other religions and secularism.

6. There is an inerrant holy book, prophet or charismatic leader to whom literal obedience is mandatory.

7. Law and authority come from God.

8. Female sexuality must be controlled and clear impassable boundaries must be established between men and women.

9. Sexual behaviour is a major concern of all fundamentalists — Christian, Jewish, Islamic — without exception. Especially the fear of and opposition to homosexuality.

10. Fundamentalism and nationalism converge."

Tamas Pataki is Honorary Senior Fellow and sometime lecturer in the Philosophy Department, University of Melbourne, and Honorary Fellow at Deakin University. He has published extensively on the philosophy of mind, psychoanalysis, moral philosophy, and aesthetics, and is co-editor, with Michael Levine, of Racism in Mind (Cornell, 2004).Scribe Publications

* Ongoing Dialogue ~ Andrew Sullivan & Sam Harris

God is Not a Moderate

Is Religion 'Built Upon Lies'?

Best-selling atheist Sam Harris and pro-religion blogger
Andrew Sullivan debate God, faith, and fundamentalism.

Most Americans oppose violence spurred by religious fundamentalism, but few agree on how to address it. In books like The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation and essays, author Sam Harris contends that religion itself--not its more extreme forms--is to blame.

Beginning January 16, 2007, Harris has been debating blogger and author Andrew Sullivan of The Conservative Soul (website) in a no-holds-barred blogalogue. The dialogue continues here.

* All Religion is the Twilight Zone ~ James A. Haught

James A. Haught, Freethought Today
Vol. 14, No. 10
December 1997, 4–5.



Wikipedia Image

I think all religion is The Twilight Zone. Every supernatural system-—from Catholics who think a wafer turns into miraculous flesh, to Scientologists who think they’re “thetans” from another planet—from Pentecostals who spout “the unknown tongue,” to TV evangelists who say God wants movies censored-—from Mormons who think Jesus came to America, to New Age swamis who “channel” spirits from the lost continent of Atlantis—it’s all belief in magic, unsupported by any tangible evidence."* * *

To Question is the Answer:
Challenge supernaturalism in all its forms, from religion to ouija boards.

Haught writes:

"Welcome to a quest for mental honesty. I'm an old newspaper editor who has spent half a century chronicling social struggles and cultural tides.

"Personally, I've waged a long crusade for rational, scientific thinking as an antidote for harmful supernaturalism. I've written five books and many magazine articles against religion, astrology, mysticism, psychic claims, cults, "New Agery," fundamentalism, and other magical beliefs.

"Although billions of people pray to invisible gods, there's no actual evidence of deities and devils, heavens and hells, spirits and prophecies, etc. They're just imaginary, as far as a sincere inquirer can tell. So, to me, the only honest viewpoint is the humanist one, which doubts the supernatural and focuses on improving human life.

"This web site contains some of my skeptical pieces - plus others on science, sailing, sex, serenity, the joy of nature, and the meaning of life (or lack thereof). You're free to read, download, print out, circulate or reprint any of these materials."

James A. Haught, Website
Updated March 2005

James Haught, editor-in-chief of the Charleston Gazette, West Virginia, since 1993, has been a member of the Gazette staff for more than 45 years, and has won 15 national newswriting awards. He has written five books and an endless number of articles and essays, many of which can be found on his website.