Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism is not restricted to those two religions, or even to religion alone, it is an attitude to life which can be found in many things. There are even fundamentalist Buddhists, as found in the Sri Lankan Buddhist/Tamil conflict; fundamentalists on both side of the Catholic/Protestant conflict in Northen Ireland; fundamentalist Hindus, Jews, and, to my surprise, even fundamentalist Pagans. Critics of globalisation speak, with considerable validity, of fundamentalist free market economists; elements of the feminist movement show all the signs of fundamentalism; we only had to look at the political forums here during the US election to see political fundamentalists, on both sides of the debate. Fundamentalism is a worldview, a personality characteristic, that sees the world in terms of essential truths which are so "true" to the believer that they cannot be questioned, and completely apart from any critical analysis. The Truth of a religious belief, the truth that the free market holds the answer to everything, the truth that all men discriminate against all women, the truth that communism, or capitalism, or socialism are the perfect solution/the evil empire: all truths which the fundamentlist will defend in the face of any evidence. People are fundamentalists because believing in an essential truth is safe, an unchanging, secure base for their lives, and anything that threatens that security or that truth must be destroyed. Thus terrorism on the one hand, or racism, sexism, political persecution, and so on come to be. Hope this perspective helps. Lash

That is not fundamentalism. That is radicalism. Fundamentalism is not feeling that you are justified for killing an unbeliever or your own children because they were baptized, that is insanity. No Christian could follow the Bible, and go and murder someone even to save their soul. For instance, once that man thought about it and took that step and killed his wife and children, he was no longer a Christian, if he was one at all. The only way a man could kill someone and be justified is if he is in the military and fighting a war, or if someone tried to attack him or someone else, and he had to kill that person to protect him or another. Fundamentalists follow the Ten commandments, and also they follow what Jesus taught, hate what HE hates, love what HE loves, and keep themselves unspotted from the world. This means that what was wrong in the Bible, does not suddenly become right just because everyone else says so and if you do not say it is not right, you will be considered a hate monger. But one should follow and obey God because one loves God, and not be legalistic.

Killing is unacceptable unless is a case of self defense because we have an obligation to defend ourselves from those who wish to kill us. There is no excuse for the killing of innocent people.

Fundamentalism doesn't teach Honesty, or Love thy neighbor as thyself. If it did the man who murdered his wife because she was saved would be able to put himself in her place, and By Golly, when the shoe was on the other foot, he would not want to be murdered even if he is/was saved and would surly go to heaven. Same with Islam Terrorists- they kill and maim in the name of Allah, but cannot see that Allah Loves everyone equally, no matter their nationality or creed.

Yes I think I could agree with you. Fundamentalists are the same in the way they believe no matter what they religion is. They tend to believe in the literal truth of their religion and the religion is always right and anything done in its name is good and holy. That includes killing and dying. I find it disturbing that a man can justify murdering his wife and children because he could not support them financially. The problem is that in the fundamental nature of many patriarchal religions then the wife is just property and not allowed to work or support herself. It is interesting that the country that put him in prison did not agree with him. But then you also get men who kill their wives rather than let them leave the marriage. They are property and better that she die than let her have her freedom.

fundamentalism is such a hard topic to braoch without saying something to offend someone. Fundamentalism can mean a lot of things whether its in regards to Christian missionaries or Islamic groups. A lot of people use the title Islamic Fundamentalists these days to refer to the Taliban, and the followers of the Taliban, ie: carbombers. Therefore immeadiatly giving the word a bad reputation. I would agree with you to the level i am educated on these religiongs that it seems to be the same concept regardless of the religion you follow.

I agree with a number of responses here. The words 'fundamental' or even 'born again' and in some cases 'Christian' or 'Muslim' conjure up wrong images in the mind of the public who know little about what these terms actually mean. I have reached the point where I would hesitate to call myself Christian if someone is going to misinterpret as conforming to some wrongly preconceived idea. To suggest that someone has a belief but is not 'fundamental' would suggest that they are maybe 'existentialist' or that they use some sort of non-fundamental interpretation of their own religious belief... The word 'fanatic' is the only word that can accurately describe someone who believes that it is OK to kill someone in the name of their religion, although 'sociopath' might be just as applicable. The man you mentioned cannot be described as a fundamental as he has violated the most fundamental of Laws, the ten commandments - and has apparently no remorse. It is sad that the word fundamental has been so hi-jacked and has come to mean something so remote from it's actual meaning, forcing people to say that they are not fundamental when they should be free to say that they fundamentally believe in what their scriptures say.

This type of beleifs led to the ancient crusades and some fundamentalists in both religions are considering wahat happening in Iraq and afghanisthan is a modern day crusade...

"..killing is justified if it means spending eternity in the heaven that they envision, rather than in the hell which their loving God has prepared.." wow ! i think killing is justified only when in self-defense, to protect another innocent life... meaning you to protect yourself and others. killing the innocent - to save the innocent - so that the innocent will go to heaven (assuming that the man believes that when an innocent is murdered - his sins are forgiven, and therefore will go to heaven) - i can understand it, but cannot accept or agree to it.. i dont understand what the man was protecting the family from.. if he had tried to save them from being killed - why not try to kill the person threatening them. if he was trying to save them from dying of starvation.. surely there are ways of feeding them.. ? killing his innocent family to ensure their (the family's) passage to heaven.. ??..

I agree with you on a lot of what you said regarding killing people simply because they'll go to heaven anyway. However, I would have to say I am currently in a class entitled "Fundamentalism." We are studying Christian fundamentalism. While there are those out there who might claim the title Fundamentalist Christian who kill people and justify it, I would venture a guess they are few and far between. If you look at the history of the term, it's actually a movement within broader Christianity to the right ideologically of New Evangelicalism. The movement is called Fundamentalism but you'd be hard pressed to find a church that condoned killing in the way you mentioned. I don't think it's a matter of telling the killers apart from the true church. I think it's a matter of not getting caught up with the news these days that describes any wacko job as a "Fundamentalist." I don't know how accurate a term it is for the followers of Islam. But for the followers of Christianity, it is based in a movement that has nothing to do with killing. You can take it for what it's worth, I'm not an expert, but I do think it's being a bit extreme to lump terrorists and criminals together under the common term "Fundamentalist" when in Christianity, at least, it's not accurate. You'd have to find a follower of Islam to confirm on how it's correctly used in their religion. I do agree though, I think people who kill like that and try to justify it are deceiving themselves and nobody else.