I wrote this shortly after the events of 9/11/01. A Short Essay on Religious Fundamentalism By Claude F. Shouse It has been suggested by certain religious leaders such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell that the United States has earned and deserves the horror that has been visited upon it because of our lack of religious faith in our government institutions. This attitude has also been echoed by many less well-known Christian leaders and laity. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is, is that the terror was made possible precisely because of the union of political power and religious belief. The only difference is that the religious belief of the perpetrators of the crime was not �our� religious belief, but �their� religious belief. The real enemy is fundamentalism, the idea that people can be prophets, that their idea of religious belief should be institutionalized in government, schools, and courts. It amazes me that people such as Christian or Muslim clergy dare to speak for God. Here in the United States, fundamentalism has been kept at bay by the wisdom of our deist founders who had the good sense to constitutionally separate religion and governance. But this gulf, erected by the founders, is constantly under attack by the fundamentalists who pretend in attitudes of arrogance and hubris, that they know the mind of God. We know from history that Christian fundamentalism is no purer than Muslim fundamentalism by the terrors of the inquisition, the crusades, pograms against Jews, witches and other demons of the past and present. Today, we have Christian ministers campaigning to have the wisdom of science ignored in favor of creation �science� in schools. Things will be better, they say, if only we had prayer in schools, or the Ten Commandments posted in our courts. They wish to further institutionalize the Christian faith in government to the exclusion of any other idea. Prayer in schools maybe a fine idea if prayers to every idea of god is honored. And on atheist day, prayer would be supplanted by a moment of rational thought. Make no mistake, we are about to embark on what history will regard as World War III. Not the atomic holocaust predicted (but that may happen) but a war against that tiny minority of Islamists who are so sure of their God and their idea of God, that they feel justified on working the utmost horror on their supposed enemies. They are as different from the Reverends Robertson and Falwell as the color of the peas in the same pod. I urge my family and friends to resist this idea. Secularism and Humanism must be our rallying cry because, it is our humanity not our idea of God that unites us as co-habitors of this planet. In the end, if you�re not God, you�re guessing. |