{"id":543,"date":"2018-03-10T07:59:42","date_gmt":"2018-03-10T07:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/divergence.blog\/?p=543"},"modified":"2018-03-10T07:59:42","modified_gmt":"2018-03-10T07:59:42","slug":"not-all-fundamentalism-is-religious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/03\/10\/not-all-fundamentalism-is-religious\/","title":{"rendered":"Not all Fundamentalism is Religious"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Putting aside the paradox that perhaps all fundamentalism is<\/em> religious because the narratives we inhabit should be thought of as that which we believe reflect ultimate concern\/absolute meaning and truth comprehensively\u2014even if that ultimate concern\/meaning and truth is that there no such thing, i.e. empiricism or positivism, I will still use this title as a nod toward what I\u2019m sure the purely secular person\/atheist\/agnostic believes about his own world-view or narrative.\u00a0 And he\/she believes it to be anything but religious, in fact, he believes it to be the very opposite of religious or faith based.\u00a0 Okay, fine.\u00a0 Sure.<\/p>\n

My point is that, regardless, the secular can also be fundamentalist.\u00a0 A case in point is Steven Pinker (see here<\/a>).\u00a0 I came across this book review (see here<\/a>) by John Gray, whom I\u2019ve always liked.\u00a0 Gray points out Pinker\u2019s scientism, which is also a type of fundamentalism, an ideology, in the context of Pinker\u2019s book about the Enlightenment. I would encourage you to read Gray\u2019s review.<\/p>\n

I especially liked the focus here:<\/p>\n

\u201cPinker is an ardent enthusiast for free-market capitalism, which he believes produced most of the advance in living standards over the past few centuries. Unlike Spencer, he seems ready to accept that some provision should be made for those who have been left behind\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

But as Gray points out, based upon a purely scientific outlook, there is no logical basis for making those provisions.\u00a0 Any such provisions would have to be made upon an ethical and moral basis, which science or empiricism cannot provide.\u00a0 Science can only tell us about what is<\/em>, not what should<\/em> be.\u00a0 Scientific research\/methods can prove the Holocaust happened.\u00a0 What science (if we mean empiricism\/scientism) cannot do is tell us the event was wrong or immoral.\u00a0 It can only make statements; it can never comment or opine.<\/p>\n

Gray goes on to point out that the Enlightenment was not as enlightened as Pinker believes:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe link between the Enlightenment and liberal values, which Pinker and many others today assert as a universal truth, is actually rather tenuous. It is strongest in Enlightenment thinkers who were wedded to monotheism, such as Locke and indeed Kant. The more hostile the Enlightenment has been to monotheism, the more illiberal it has been. Comte\u2019s anti-liberalism inspired Charles Maurras, a French collaborator with Nazism and the leading theorist of Action Fran\u00e7aise \u2013 a fascistic movement formed during the Dreyfus affair \u2013 in his defence of integral nationalism. Lenin continued the Jacobins\u2019 campaign against religion as well as their pedagogy of terror.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fundamentalist sensibility of Pinker and those who share his views is best noted here however, at the outset of Gray\u2019s review:<\/p>\n

\u201cEarly on in this monumental apologia for a currently fashionable version of Enlightenment thinking, he [Pinker] writes: \u2018To take something on faith means to believe it without good reason, so by definition a faith in the existence of supernatural entities clashes with reason.\u2019 Well, it\u2019s good to have that settled once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gray\u2019s sarcasm is entirely apt.\u00a0 Pinker\u2019s assertion is the type of statement one might hear a first-year philosophy major make after a long night of drinking beer and vaping weed.<\/p>\n

It is the same type of statement or understanding we might hear from a Baptist fundamentalist or even some evangelicals (sober<\/em>, mind you).\u00a0 We could re-word it thus:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo take something on reason alone means to believe it apart from the Bible or faith, so by definition, reason clashes with God\u2019s word, with faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well\u2026no.\u00a0 What it means is neither person understands faith or reason.\u00a0 It means both see them as oppositions, dichotomies, either\/or choices, rather than as two important aspects to the same reality.\u00a0 As someone has put it: faith and reason are the two wings upon which a bird needs to fly.<\/p>\n

Anyway, enjoy Gray\u2019s review.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen (and experienced) the damage fundamentalism does, and we need to stand against both the secular and religious types.\u00a0 A pox on both houses\u2014same house, really.<\/p>\n[Update: Here<\/a> is another good, and much more generous review, of Pinker\u2019s book]\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Putting aside the paradox that perhaps all fundamentalism is religious because the narratives we inhabit should be thought of as that which we believe reflect ultimate concern\/absolute meaning and truth comprehensively\u2014even if that ultimate concern\/meaning and truth is that there no such thing, i.e. empiricism or positivism, I will still use this title as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3524,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[161,227,413,443],"class_list":["post-543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fundamentalism","tag-john-gray","tag-scientism","tag-steven-pinker"],"yoast_head":"\nNot all Fundamentalism is Religious<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Putting aside the paradox that perhaps all fundamentalism is religious because the narratives we inhabit should be thought of as that which we believe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/03\/10\/not-all-fundamentalism-is-religious\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Not all Fundamentalism is Religious\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Putting aside the paradox that perhaps all fundamentalism is religious because the narratives we inhabit should be thought of as that which we believe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/03\/10\/not-all-fundamentalism-is-religious\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Divergence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-10T07:59:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darrell Lackey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@darrelllackey1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darrell Lackey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/03\/10\/not-all-fundamentalism-is-religious\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/03\/10\/not-all-fundamentalism-is-religious\/\",\"name\":\"Not all Fundamentalism is Religious\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-10T07:59:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-10T07:59:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#\/schema\/person\/d88a32b8d4b5f40fbd6ccbfce4e0f813\"},\"description\":\"Putting aside the paradox that perhaps all fundamentalism is religious because the narratives we inhabit should be thought of as that which we believe\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/03\/10\/not-all-fundamentalism-is-religious\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/03\/10\/not-all-fundamentalism-is-religious\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/03\/10\/not-all-fundamentalism-is-religious\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Not all Fundamentalism is Religious\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/\",\"name\":\"Divergence\",\"description\":\"Commentary Regarding Fundamentalism - 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