Interesting study about the reason some people are immovable religious fundamentalists.

Speaking from my own experience, I was a Christian fundamentalist because I was born and raised that way. And I would wager that that's the case for a majority of fundamentalists. I have to wonder how many people convert to fundamentalism (brain damaged or not) because it's not that appealing. I mean all that hellfire, damnation and hate is what helped me grow out of it by the time I was grown. That said, I can also identify with the biologist E. O. Wilson, another former fundamentalist who has written that "those old Baptist hymns still bring tears to my eyes."

 

JD Crossan had a great point when asked if any passages could be considered metaphorical. How did the Incarnation Himself answer any question when he was on earth?

In fact, my daughter tried to write a small comedy routine on it I thought amusing and reverent, with the apostles getting frustrated because they could never get a straight answer.

“What should we have for dinner?

“Once there was a man……”

“Can you just answer the question in a way a human can understand, just this once?”

That was the drift

 

Fair enough, I'll just say that most of my cousins still living remain fundamentalists, that is, they're immovable, and I know of no brain damage in any of them. They were just raised like I was, but never grew out of it. (The couple of cousins I have who are not fundamentalists were not raised that way.) And as far as fundamentalists being immovable despite anything that "showed their beliefs to be wrong," what would that anything be?

 

Wow. Just wow.

 

I had an English teacher in high school who talked in class one day about the importance of saving souls through Christ. (This was back before the separation of church and state.) Already in the process of freeing myself from the bonds of fundamentalism, I asked her something like, "What about people who live in darkest Africa who have never heard of Christ?" Her answer was, "Their blood is on our hands."

 

I think brain damage is too strong a term. But I do think there is a commonality among many people with overly strident views, be it religion, politics etc. I have noticed there is a strong overlap between takes I question on the sports boards and those peoples opinions here.
There is very much a group that needs to see the world through a specific lens because it’s the least stressful way to live for them. They have to live with certainty. And facts need to fit that narrative, be it an optimistic one, pessimistic one, through the lens of a specific religion, political party etc.

 

I said they were fundamentalists. I didn't say they were crazy.

My cousins would say that the age of the Earth if an open question. Who cares? And I know of no fundamentalist who thinks Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a dinosaur.

You've heard of White Christian Nationalism? My cousins would think that slavery today would be just fine.

 

TBI is always going to be a tiny portion of the population, so I think even phrasing it as “some” and limiting it to religion is a bit unfair. I was trying to speak to the larger phenomena.
But even those 2 are similar forms of the same thing. If you are willing to be led that absolutely, you don’t have to think critically, the world is defined for you and provides its own level of certainty. The leader is always right. Trump is the current poster child, but there have been countless examples throughout history, and there is a sizable portion of the population who are always willing to oblige.

 

I know what science says. I'm saying that my cousins wouldn't care how old it is, it doesn't affect their faith. God created the world whenever it was.

Of course it isn't. If you haven't noticed, this country is going to hell.

 

Great points. I wonder if many who appear very certain actually have doubt and don’t like the feeling of ambiguity and uncertainty. Or do they actually lack doubt? Maybe there are groups of both. I think I have the opposite trait and suppose I find more comfort wallowing around in grey areas and constantly second guessing myself.

 

When I was a fundamentalist growing up, I couldn't get through a day without asking God to forgive me for something about fifteen or twenty times. Every step was walking into some new guilt. Talk about deliverance, when I left fundamentalism I truly felt like I was born again.

 

The contingent that advocates for injecting disinfect into your bloodstream knows a thing or two about brain damage.

 

Please keep this to yourselves. I am the Messiah, but I am still trying to figure out the right moment to reveal myself.