Intellectual tail-chasing. Using the Bible to prove the Bible. +5

It's particularly amusing when they quote scripture in order to convince a non-believer like me who doesn't give a rat's ass what the Bible says.

While it's easy to poke fun at these folks, because they do get themselves twisted up into knots fairly quickly, I think it's more useful to sit back a bit and consider the less obvious aspects of this phenomena. Fundamentalism is making a big comeback around the world... not just Christian fundamentalism, but Islamic fundamentalism and Hindu fundamentalism and nationalism (which could be called 'cultural fundamentalism'). All this fundamentalism... where is it coming from? What is driving it? My sense is that it's being driven by fear of change. We live in a world where the rate of change keeps accelerating. Now we have the Internet, where everybody can talk to everybody else regardless of geography, and to some degree independent of language (see Google Translate). That's a huge revolution in the domain of human communication, and it's lubricating the already-fast 'rate of change' machine. That's scary to contemplate. What will these changes bring us? Is it all headed to chaos? Will the order in the world (such as it is) break down into every-man-for-himself? Those kinds of fears are what I think is driving fundamentalism: when the ride starts going too fast, a lot of people just decide it's better to get off and try to find some solid ground to stand on. What could be more solid than tradition, than "the good old days"? But there's a problem: the world IS changing rapidly, as a whole, and there are few safe little pockets of solid ground where someone can hide out from that change -- many of these changes are global and affect all of the systems of life and culture which we depend on for our survival, livelihood, and calling. So those who think they've stepped off onto solid ground are actually engaging in delusional thinking -- not only are they not helping to sort out the rapid changes, they're forming little blood clots in the circulatory system of the world's development, forcing everyone to go around them and building up thick layers of dangerous plaque. Life has always been changing. This was less obvious in ancient times, but the realization can no longer be avoided. How we deal with change is critical: do we keep our eyes open, work to keep our balance, and work to help steer the ship, or do we throw ourselves over the side with a rope trying to be a human anchor? I prefer the former to the latter, and encourage others to do the same. Fundamentalism is more scary than change, to me.

A car mechanic would not quote a lawnmower manual to fix a car, so why should a Christian not quote the bible? You do not have to believe or even listen so what is that to you?

Nice one Tom. Thanks. +5

Why can't you accept that their opinions are different from yours? Why should they conform to what you believe they should be just because you think you know what's best for them? If you aren't interested in what they write, don't read it. When I walk into a library, I don't go for the books I'm not interested in. There's so many options there. Well, it's the same for here. You don't have to look if you're not interested!