Discussion Group Report

"Across the world, millions of people feel threatened. They sense a dangerous enemy at the gates, committed to values and beliefs they fear and despise, and ready to impose its alien ideology on their government, their life and their children's future," declares an article in New Scientist, October 8, 2005.

It says that this statement shows how religious fundamentalists feel. The secular world of the early 21st century is a threat to all they hold dear. In response increasing numbers are joining militant religious groups and living, voting and battling for their beliefs. Like it or not, they already outnumber the secular rationalists whose thinking underpins today's western urban societies. Much of the past century was characterized by a widespread belief, at least in the west, that as the world developed materially, religion would dwindle in importance. But the opposite has happened. Fundamentalist Islamic movements are gaining strength across the Muslim world and beyond. In the U.S. Christian fundamentalism holds more political and cultural power than ever before. Fundamentalist movements have arisen within Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism. The world, in short, is witnessing an explosion of movements that reject rational inquiry as the best way to explain the world and empirical evidence as the best way to formulate policy. Islamic and Christian fundamentalisms are often portrayed as being on opposite sides in a "cosmic struggle" of good against evil. "But they are the same," says New Scientist.

Fundamentalist religions are driven by a desire to get "back to basics," to turn the clock back to a supposed golden age when their religion was untainted by secular influences. They fervently believe they alone have the truth--usually an overtly literal interpretation of a sacred text--and an equally fervent desire to impose that truth on others. Unlike mainstream religion, they cannot tolerate dissent.

What is driving the growth of such intolerant belief systems? "There is," says the article, "palpable unease that fundamentalism represents a mortal threat to the accomplishments of modern society; that the achievements of the Enlightenment are in danger of being rolled back." Does it pose a threat to the scientific world view? A study by Scott Appleby of the University of Notre Dame concludes that the very force that was once expected to render religion obsolete, modernity, is in fact causing it to mutate and gather strength. Modernity is a mode of thinking that is exemplified by science. It focuses on change and progress, empirical evidence rather than revealed truth, and skepticism of traditional (including religious) authority. It has proved enormously powerful.

Surprising was the ability of religion to fight back and to spawn an entirely new way of looking at the world. What characterizes traditional religions, says Karen Armstrong, a British writer on religion, and an expert on fundamentalism, is that they are geared to the needs of people in traditional agrarian societies. They focus on the permanence of mythical truths behind superficial reality, and the divine will behind apparent injustice. They see life as cyclical, not progressive, and offer an understanding of the cosmos and a system of morals which provide rules, reassurance and meaning that people in such societies need.

Against this background, modernity can be deeply unsettling. It "undermines all the old certainties," writes Peter Berger, a sociologist of religion at Boston University. Traditional societies are culturally uniform, but as people from this background are drawn into industrialized urban life, they come up against others who believe different things. What scandalizes people is startlingly similar across countries and cultures: pluralism and tolerance of other faiths, non-traditional gender roles and sexual behavior, reliance on human reason rather than divine revelation, or democracy, which grants power to people rather than God.

"It is important that we understand the dread and anxiety that lie at the heart of the fundamentalist vision," Armstrong advises. "Only then will we begin to comprehend its passionate rage, its frantic desire to fill the void with certainty, and its conviction of ever-encroaching evil."

Should secularists feel threatened? Yes and no. sometimes fundamentalists embrace an approach based on reason. Nearly half of evangelists, one study showed, opposed banning stem cell research; and their views on homosexuality and abortion differed little from those of the general population. But evangelical Christians in the U.S. have successfully fostered a belief that science is somehow anti-religious, and that this imbalance must be redressed. Only 26% of Americans are evangelicals but in 2004 37% of Americans wanted creationism taught in the schools. Erosion of popular support for scientific research makes it easier to sell politically motivated denial of scientific discoveries such as global warming. George W. Bush has talked openly of running a "faith-based presidency;" and a member of his inner circle has been quoted referring disdainfully to the "reality-based community--that is, people who believe policy should be based on empirical evidence rather than faith. "George Bush was not elected by a majority of voters in the United States. He was appointed by God," according to one senior U.S. politician. Commentator Thomas Frank has argued that by allying itself with evangelical beliefs, the U.S. Republican Party has managed to dupe poor people into voting for economic policies that damage their interests, such as tax cuts for the rich.

The challenge for the secular inheritors of the Enlightenment is to remain true to their values and be tolerant and pluralistic--even in the face of an opponent that can never reciprocate. That means understanding fundamentalist mentality, and at least not adding to the alienation that inspires the more extreme among them. "We must accept seriously held public belief as a normal part of modern living," says sociologist Grace Davie. "The more you deny and attack it, the more defensive it gets."