Cozmoe

I was lurking around the Baptist Board and there is a thread about what makes a "good" fundamentalist. I imagine to many of us that is an oxymoron, but it does raise an interesting question: What exactly is a fundamentalist? What makes a fundie a fundie?

In my opinion a fundamentalist (and let's narrow this to a fundamentalist Christian) is someone whose whole life is filtered through the Bible. A Bible that is 100% literally true. Every thing they hear and see, every decision they make, and every thing that they do is weighed against "God's word."

But it goes further than that. How one lives his or her life is up to them. But fundamentalists go a step further. Anything that they see as contradicting the Bible is not just ignored but it is attacked, viciously: homosexuality and evolution for example.

Does anybody else have any thoughts?

Arvel Joffi

A fundamentalist is someone who does not trust their powers of reason, their own judgement, and their own sense of right and wrong; they require a rulebook to do it for them. Fundamentalism will rob any human of the powers of reason and logic, if they let it.

beastmaster

I read somewhere that a "fundamentalist" is someone who believes their religion is fundamentally threatened by the dominant culture, whether by persecution or marginalization. I think that is a good functional definition.

braces_for_impact

That's per Webster.com, works for me.

penumbra

Does fundamentalist therefore equate to bibble literalist? If so, then which bibble version do most fundies accept as truth (I'm guessing KJV from what I've read elsewhere)?

Arvel Joffi

Either the one their parents shove down their throats, or the one they stumble upon in a cheap motel after they've vomited on themselves, the hooker has left with their wallet and their crack, and they realize they need salvation.

Psycho Economist

Eh... the dictionary would say yes but as a matter of practice, of course not. Fundamentalism is really about whether or not the Bible is the ultimate standard by which one worships and lives his life... in a really fuzzy sort of way.

People read through the book, inevitably form their own interpretations, and believe their interpretation to be the literal text of what they read, because "literal" has been equated with "good" and they want to be good. Trouble is, we we can't carry the verbatim text around in our heads and still have it be meaningful.

Most fundies like the King James Version, but plenty use the New International Version, maybe because that's what all the devotional Bibles are published in.

beyelzu

fundamentalists hold faith above reason on almost any issue. and that is i think what separates them from reasonable people.