Chris Attaway recently suggested that ” Fundamentalism…is when social function becomes so important so as to discourage or even forbid real knowledge.”
He compares it to playing Unfair Mario, a Mario game that I was previously unfamiliar with. Click through to try it. I laughed out loud.
The point of the comparison is that the game is one of arbitrary obstacles and traps, and one may learn ways of avoiding them, but without there ever being a rationale for why one should do so, or why things are the way things are. Not that the classic Super Mario Bros. made all that much sense.
Attaway further suggests that:
Fundamentalism is the result of a philosophical mistake. We favor our way of doing things rather than the why which lies behind them. They become a set of taboos, still in practice but with their significance long forgotten.
If we’re ever going to achieve any real semblance of peace, justice, or any of those wonderful values that Christians and people of all stripes like talking about, then we’re going to have to set aside differences of culture, practice, and so forth to seek what is essential behind them. Until we do that in full, those values are just shadows of what they could be, held back by our prejudice.
Do you agree? And, having now discovered Unfair Mario, do you still have time to reflect on things like religious fundamentalism?
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In