RELIGION EQUALS FUNDAMENTALISM

 
Proof that secularism and atheism are correct and that even "civilised religion" has a potential for danger and its influence must be counteracted
 

ALL RELIGION IS A FORM OF FUNDAMENTALISM
 
What is a fundamentalist?
A fundamentalist is a person who would hurt or cheat others for the sake of religious doctrine. The doctrines you support make you the kind of person you are. Fundamentalists are immune to logical argument. They don't have the integrity. This attitude alone makes them dangerous for those who have to associate with them.
 
Do fundamentalists respect the right of people to believe and practice a faith or philosophy that differs from theirs?
No. They may ostracise them or tell them they are going to Hell. They will pressure people to accept their beliefs instead of helping people to think for themselves about the beliefs.
 
Why is religion necessarily fundamentalist?
Because it is an ideology that claims to be revealed by God and God knows best and so we must agree with it. You cannot be a fundamentalist without having an ideology. We are naturally individualistic in the sense that we believe in making up our own minds and religion opposes that.
 
Surely all ideologies are not fundamentalist?
They are not but they still are at risk of going fundamentalist. There are many ideologies that are needed but religion is not one of them and we could do without it adding to the risk.
 
What is religion's attitude to the state?
If religion advocates secularism it is only because there are other religions around and the state cannot listen to and please them all. Some religion is going to be disadvantaged. This implies that religion would abolish secularism if everybody joined the religion. That would be fundamentalism. If it tolerates secularism it has no love for it.
 
Are liberal Christians, for example, fundamentalists?
Yes. They always pick and choose what they like out of what God has revealed. So they ask people to obey their interpretation of religion meaning they want to be followed as gods for whoever treats man's word as divine is making man divine. For men to act infallible and godlike in that manner is extremism and they manipulate the superstitious.
 
Are liberal Christians and fundamentalist ones really very different?
 
No. Both fundamentalists and liberals pick and choose what they want from the Bible and both take texts literally when it suits. They already made up their mind and then cherry pick the texts they need to back their ideas up. They fool people by trying to look honest and objective.
 
Should any form of Christianity, to name one major faith, lead to dangerous anti-social fundamentalism?
Yes. Luckily that doesn't always happen but it still indicates the faith is dangerous and people should not support it.
 
What methods does religion use to persecute unbelievers and to force silence on those members who would wish to speak out against it?
Sometimes it uses legal pressure. It makes the law punish critics or give the fictitious right to discriminate against people on religious grounds. More often it uses social pressure where a person can be looked down, maligned on or even ostracised for refusing to submit.
 
Prove that we are individualists?
Nobody can hurt me at all unless I let myself be upset about what they do to me. In this sense, I stand alone.
 
What does our individualism imply about religious fundamentalism?
That it manipulates us and treats us as tools for its purposes.
 
Does belief in God imply that the evil doctrine of predestination is true?
Yes - you may as well believe in fate. If we misuse free will, we do it because of God not against him for he is almighty. Therefore we should not feel bad about any evil we do for God consented to its existence for some reason. Belief in God logically implies we can do all the harm we wish as long as we realise that we are still being God's instruments.
 
What else is wrong with the idea of this God who is so powerful that nothing happens unless he empowers it to?
Atheism implies that evil actions are evil and are to be opposed as useless. God implies they serve a purpose - the idea partly condones the evil.
 
What is fanaticism?
Fanaticism is putting beliefs and social systems before people. Religious fanaticism is when a religion fails to live and believe in such a way that no harm or at least time-wasting is done if the religion turns out to be untrue.

Give one major example of religious fanaticism?
The ban put on doubt by Jesus and the Bible and the Christian Church in which they say it is your duty to believe. There can be no duty but to mean well and think hard and to know you have the right to disagree.
 
Why can doubt never be a sin or immoral?
Because real doubt is sincere. The Catholic Church warns that believers must not read anything that makes them doubt. Any religion that does that has things to hide. The world will never make progress if people look away form anything that offers them a new perspective.
 
Why is it bullying to say that people who do not believe will go to Hell or somehow be at a disadvantage for they have not obeyed God's law that we must believe?
If you do not believe in God you will not obey him. To say that disobedience or lack of faith or absence of faith is bad or will be punished is bullying. It is bullying to tell anybody they must believe anything. Different people see evidence differently and interpret it differently. What is evidence for one is suspicious for another. It is pure persecution to make threats if people don't see things the way you do.
 
How can we be optimists if there is no God?   
If we love ourselves we will find that our love draws many amazing blessings to us so that we cannot be anything but trusting that the future will be good. We have to be either optimists or pessimists and it is certainly better to be optimistic. It feels better.

Surely if religious faith insults us unbelievers at least implicitly we should focus on the fact that believers intend to have a faith and not to offend us?
This is saying that the offence to us is an unintended side-effect. We are still suffering a problem and have the right to address it and just tell them. .
 
What if people tell you that it is your duty to believe something?
You can have bad evidence for something that is true. You can have good evidence for something that is false. That is why nobody can be under an obligation to believe anything. They are bigots. Religion says you have a duty to believe x and y and z. It shows its real colours in doing that.
 
Does religion pretend to be a lamb when it can't control the state?
Yes and no. Christianity and Judaism and Islam and other God religions are lions awaiting their chance to suppress anything that contradicts their ideology and to control the state.
 
What is secularism?
The state acting without letting itself be influenced by religious or superstitious belief. However, if a religion argues on social issues on purely rational grounds and not just because some pope or Bible says such and such the state is listening to it not as religion but as a think-tank. That is acceptable.
 
Is secularism fundamentalist?
No. We have to have principles to run a state and public services. Secularism is will not please everyone and cannot but as imperfect as it is anything else is worse. For example, the nation will be ruined if it tires to please every religion so the only option is to ignore religion and let it look after itself.
 
Is anything that is against secularism fundamentalist?
Yes. To oppose secularism is to refuse to safeguard at least some human rights.  
 
RELIGION IS DIVISIVE
 
Does religion induce people to be suspicious of those who disagree with them in religious matters?
Put two theologians together in a room. One believes the opposite of the other. Both claim that they are certain that God revealed their beliefs to them in their hearts and inspired them to accept them. One of them at least, must be practicing self-deception. One has to suspect the other of it.
 
Why is their attitude arrogance and a bad example for warmongering nations?
Because it implies God is selective and practices favouritism. Many nations claim to follow God's true religion that the rest of the world opposes.
 
Does religion give us something extra to disagree about as if we don't already have enough to argue about and divide us?
Yes. It is hard enough to decide what to do without religion and god being brought in. People suffer while time is wasted. Tolerance implies putting up with something bad. Tolerance is necessary thought it is not a completely nice thing. Religion creates more things to demand our tolerance as if there isn't enough!
 
Does religion give us something extra to hate one another over?
Humankind tends to hate. Religion coming along only provides another "reason" to hate.
 
Is there enough in life that is open to abuse without religion?
Yes. To support religion is to take some of the blame for any abuse it engages in.
 
What temptation happens to those who believe in the supernatural?
When angered they will tend to invoke supernatural entities to hurt their enemies. Or they may take great satisfaction in thinking that the supernatural powers will get them back for the "wrong" they have done. Atheists are immune to this and so should be nicer people.
 
Is it safe to say belief in the supernatural encourages this?
Yes. We know that even if we forbid it people will get carried away by their emotions and pray evil prayers and cast evil spells. Therefore in those cases the belief is certainly to blame.
 
What is the ultimate goal of every religion?
To get you by sweet words and charm and sometimes terror to accept all it teaches. Liberal Christians who are in fundamentalist Churches for example are part of the conspiracy whether they realise it or not.
 
Does tolerance require that we regard all points of view as equal?
No. Only the right view has value. Wrong views are not equal to it in importance. This "tolerance" is not tolerance at all for it implies that those who think they are right are doing something wrong! It defeats its purpose.

Can religion command war and hatred?
Yes. It sometimes command it. The Bible God commanded that nations be slain by his people and that certain sinners be stoned to death.
 
Does every religion offend the others and offend unbelievers?
Yes. The Catholic teaching that the communion wafer is the body of God is regarded as an insult in Islam. If Muslims are not offended it is because they don't care though their faith implies they should be. They lack the self-respect to be offended. The Catholic attitude is that they will worship the wafer as God and stuff those who are outraged by it.
 
How should we feel about harmless religions?
They still teach harmful ideas by implication. If belief in God logically urges believers to kill those who don't believe, then the religion that preaches the existence of God is to blame when the killings start even if its official teaching frowns on them.
 
Should we hate religion?
It is religious ideas we should hate. To hate the ideas people have is not to hate the people. It is like hating a cancer that somebody suffers from.
 
What will we do if we hate religion?
Primarily we will or to keep religious influence out of the law of the land and the government and we will not participate in baptism ceremonies or consent to have our babies baptised or entered into religious membership. We will give everybody the chance to hear our side. They are entitled to hear it - everybody should hear the religious side and the non-religious side. Otherwise they have no freedom to make up their own minds.

 

If religions wage war what is wrong with blaming say Islam and not mentioning Christianity and thus putting all the blame on Islam?

The wording is the problem for when you say you cannot put all the blame on one religion you imply the blame is diluted for it is shared among the religions.  The correct way to talk about it is to say that Islam is all to blame and Christianity is all to blame too.

 

Is religion a form of culture?

Yes.

 

Is that good?

Cultures are not just about what people think – they’re also about what they don’t.  A religious culture is necessarily a barrier to freedom of expression. If we have to have a culture it need not be religious for that is too much.

 

Why does religion like to become part of the cultural fabric?

For then it can count on people who though they benefit from how their culture changed in the past want to hold on the past if it suits them and prevent the current culture adapting.  Only hypocrites battle in anger for their culture for their culture only came about because it was preceded by different cultures.

 

What is catholicity?

It is that a religion is for all people of every nation. It is a form of bigotry for no religion can suit everybody and at the end of the day our way of life as distinct from religion is what matters to all of us.  If there is a choice between the loaf and the preacher we will choose the loaf.

 

Is catholicity a feature of fundamentalism?

Yes the fundamentalists claim that they know what is right for everybody.  Catholicity and claiming to know what you cannot know are typical and core fundamentalist traits.

 

Do you need to be religious to be a fundamentalist?

No - you can believe in people believing in religion even if you do not really believe yourself.  Cultural and political and moral fundamentalists exist too.  Religion is the easiest way to fundamentalism for it is based on alleged information from God.

 

Why is it important to recognise the problems caused by fundamentalism?

These problems can grow legs and soon we end up with wars between “moral” and “immoral” people.

 

Have you anything good to say about religious fundamentalism?

Only that a fundamentalist alone knows or admits what a religion that is truly revealed by God or founded by God will look like.  They are at least honest in that.  Anything else is just an excuse for propagating blatantly man-made religion.

 

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