Fundamentalism is idolatry, and I am going to prove it twice in this essay using two different arguments. One argument from logic and the other from fruits. So stick around to either learn enough to refute me, learn enough to escape unintended idolatry, or learn enough to help deal with this widespread issue.
I don’t care if this gets copied and pasted all over the internet, so spread and share as you please.
In the effort to prove that fundamentalism is idolatry I am first going to prove that a person with power over space, time, matter, life, death, and practically every other variable along side also having full access to all information within a reality of their creating does not equate to that person being the almighty God of all realities.
To prove this I need only provide one of many factual examples of a person with this sort of power who is not the almighty God of all realities and then address a couple of ways people tend to try to undermine the validity of my example.
It is a fact that I am a limited and fallible human software developer. As such I have the power to create virtual realities over which I have the power to travel forward and backward through time, I can turn water to wine, I can make distances longer or shorter, I can give life, take life, and give it back again.
Every feat of power in the Bible that apologists point to as proof that the god of the Bible is the Almighty God of all realities is a feat I am capable of within the confines of the realities I create.
Of course this does not make me the almighty God, given that my god-like power is limited to the realities I create. That is my point. I am not the almighty God despite being more than capable of appearing to be such to any being confined to the reality I create.
It is also true that any virtual reality I could create will be less sophisticated than the reality external to it. There are some things about our reality that I will never be able to replicate in a virtual reality.
However, these facts do not undermine my point in the slightest given that they only prove that any nested reality is likely to be less sophisticated than the reality it is nested in. This does not prove that our reality is not a nested reality. It only suggests that if our reality is a nested reality, then it is likely not as sophisticated as the reality that it is nested in. So too is any reality that might be external to our own, likely to be less sophisticated than any reality that may encompass it, and so on.
Now, be careful not to confuse my point with my example, because my point is true whether our reality is a nested reality or not. That point being that a person with power over space, time, matter, life, death, and practically every other variable alongside also having full access to all information within a reality of their creation does not equate to that person being the almighty God of all realities as proven by my ability to have that sort of power over the realities I can create despite being a limited and fallible human being.
I have proven this point because its truth reveals that humans are without any reliable method for discerning if any being, spirit, or medium is divine in any way. No feat of power could distinguish, for we limited and fallible humans, an almighty God from something akin to a limited and fallible software engineer who just happens to be in a position of power over our reality.
No measure of morality can distinguish the almighty God of the universe from a false god because God’s ways are higher than our ways such that God’s choice of action or inaction might not always align with our faulty human standards of ethics.
This is why a lot of Christians believe that if God commands you to sacrifice your child, even if it feels wrong, you should do it because the fact that God commanded it means it is ultimately a good thing for you to do. Who knows, perhaps God will intervene at the last second because it was all a test of your faith.
Speaking of faith. For many people, this is where faith comes in.
When definitive proof is not available, faith can be used to assure you that your beliefs are true.
First, we need to distinguish between the secular understanding of faith, which is more akin to confident blind trust, and the biblical meanings of the word faith which are two fold.
If you are unfamiliar with best practices when it comes to Biblical interpretation, most Christian bible teachers suggest that you not lean upon any one verse to inform the Bible’s take on something, when there are multiple passages to take into account you need to use scripture to interpret scripture. This mentality informs the practice of biblical word studies, where you compile every instance where a word is used and use them to better understand what the word is meant to mean.
When we do this with the word “faith” we find that it is largely two things.
First, faith is a gift of divine revelation from God. This sort of faith cannot be manifested by a human’s sheer will.
Second, faith is the degree of belief/trust that a person puts into that which has been divinely revealed.
Source:
https://biblehub.com/greek/4102.htm
So by biblical metrics, there is no faith without divine revelation, and as we have already proven, humans do not seem to be designed to be capable of discerning whether or not anything is divine, be it a being, spirit, book, or revelation.
So let’s ignore the fact that this means faith is inaccessible to human beings for a moment, and instead fall back onto the secular meaning of faith which is distinct from biblical faith in that it is not a gift God gives you, it is a choice you make where you use your fallible human judgment in an effort to discern that something is worthy of your blind trust.
This is the sort of faith most people are referring to when they say “that is where faith comes in” and I know this because a lot of the time they will follow this up with the assertion that atheists rely on faith in science just as much as Christians rely on faith in the Bible. Unless these theists are implying that science is akin to divine revelation, I think it is safe to assume the secular meaning of the word here.
So let's examine this common comparison. Bear in mind that not everyone applies faith in the same way, so we are going to look at what might be considered an ideal application of faith in both instances.
When an atheist puts faith in a scientist's findings they are saying, “these findings seem to be a good predictor for what outputs result from these inputs, so I trust that the scientist is not lying to me. Especially if the same findings have been replicated by a third or even fourth party. However, my judgment is fallible, so my trust is not unconditional. Therefore, should sufficient evidence be presented to suggest that the findings are corrupt or that another theory is superior in its ability to predict outcomes, I will abandon my trust of the initial finding in favor of the new findings.”
When a Christian fundamentalist puts faith in the Bible they are saying, “these teachings seem to be good predictors for what outputs result from these inputs/life choices, so I trust that the Bible is not lying to me. Especially if the same findings are echoed in the testimonies of others. Even more so if the spirit in me, which, also on grounds of faith, I believe is God, seems to agree with me. Therefore, despite the fact that my judgment is fallible, I will not only trust that these teachings are good, but I will also use faith to believe these teachings are divinely authoritative. Therefore their truth is absolute and above criticism. Any contrary evidence is deceptive and cannot be true. Any seeming apparent problems with these teachings cannot be due to flaws in the teachings and so the problem must be with the ways others are interpreting and applying the teachings.”
In the most ideal example of an atheist, ideal through the eyes of most other atheists, the atheist maintains recognition of their fallible judgment such that they do not place any of the findings they trust to be above criticism.
Meanwhile, in the most ideal example of a Christian, ideal in the eyes of most other Christians, the christian uses faith to assign divine value to the conclusions they arrive at using their fallible human judgment. In this example the Christian uses faith to assign divine value to the spirit guiding them, and to the Bible, elevating both to heights that are above criticism. Importantly, the Christian does not apply divine value to the entirety of their human judgment, only the bits that affirm or seem to be affirmed by those beliefs they have used faith to assign divine value to.
There is a name for the practice of using faith to assign divine value to conclusions arrived at by fallible human judgment. That is called idolatry.
That makes one of two proofs that fundamentalism is idolatry. If you are a Christian, and this revelation unsettles you, permit me to extend this branch of hope to you. I will elaborate more upon it at the end, but for now I just want to remind you that not all Christians are fundamentalists. It is possible to be a Christian and not be an idolatrous fundamentalist. You can find examples by looking around and or stick around till the end when I will be elaborating on one way in particular.
That being said, let us move on to the next proof. That of the fruits of the fundamentalist idol, specifically the Christian fundamentalist idol as I am not well versed in other forms of fundamentalism.
The Christian fundamentalist idol teaches you that it is the absolute source of divinely authoritative truth.
As we have already proven, we as humans have no means of verifying this teaching, therefore, the fundamentalist idol asks you to believe its teachings out of trust, and that includes the teaching that it is divinely authoritative which is a subtle prompt for you to assign a degree of divine value to parts of your fallible human judgment.
This can produce a fruit of pride and arrogance surrounding those beliefs which a person has assigned divine authority to alongside any beliefs that affirm or seem to be affirmed by those beliefs they have used faith to assign divine value to.
So we have fruits of pride and arrogance.
By extension of the first teaching of the Christian fundamentalist idol, if all of its teachings are absolutely true, good, and lead to life, then everything in opposition must be false, evil, and leading to death.
This can produce a fruit of fear in fundamentalist Christians. When another of the teachings values the spiritual life over the physical one, because the spirit is eternal and the body is temporary, anyone who represents contrary teachings in public is easy to perceive as a threat to both the fundamentalist Christian’s spiritual life, and a threat to the spiritual lives of those they love.
Representation of contrary teachings becomes perceived as acts of spiritual violence on a spiritual battlefield, and if one of their loved ones comes to believe these contrary teachings, it is as though their loved one has been spiritually murdered.
When the fundamentalist Christian begins to see representation as violence against them, it can produce a fruit of violent retaliation in the name of trying to preserve their spiritual life and the spiritual lives of those around them. This is how, for the fundamentalist christian, violence can be mistaken as an “act of love”.
Another potential fruit might be isolation should the fundamentalist christian seek to push those with contrary beliefs out of their lives in the name of protecting their spiritual life and the spiritual lives of those they love.
So we now have fruits of pride, arrogance, fear, violence, and isolation. I’m sure I could prove more, but I think I have made my point. If you know the way of life by its fruits, then you should be able to conclude that christian fundamentalism is not the way of life, it is idolatry.
So if fundamentalism is idolatry, then what is the way to life?
Jesus is said to have entered into the world at a time when the Pharisees had conflated their biblically based beliefs with divinely authoritative absolute truth. From all of their studies of the Torah they thought they knew exactly what the Messiah would be like.
However, when Jesus was different from their expectations, instead of humbly admitting they were wrong, they rejected Jesus in favor of the fundamentalist idol they had made for themselves. Meanwhile those who accepted Jesus were the ones who either let go of their expectations or had no expectations to begin with.
Jesus is claimed to have said to believe, be baptized, and you will be saved. He then later says He will handle the baptism. So all that is left is belief. (Mark 16:16) (Matthew 3: 11)
If belief in Jesus is what it takes to be saved, then isn’t Jesus asking us to use our fallible human judgment to assign divine authority to him in the same way as the fundamentalist idol?
If he had used the word for “faith” then yes, but since he explicitly used the word for “believe”, not exactly. To see what Jesus is asking of us we need to do another word study on the word “believe”.
When we perform the word study we find that to believe is a matter of placing trust or confidence in something or someone and that it is faith only when involving divine revelation. It is not a matter of absolute knowledge.
Source:
https://biblehub.com/greek/4100.htm
So how do we put trust and confidence in Jesus without using our limited and fallible human judgment to assign divine value to him?
Well, Jesus is said to be “the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14: 6).
Therefore, if you trust that in seeking truth and life you will grow closer to truth and life, you are trusting Jesus.
You don’t have to know his name, his story, or his teachings. You don’t have to believe he is God, that the Bible is God’s word, or anything else. You simply have to trust that in seeking the way to that which is true and to that which brings life, in humble recognition that you can and likely will be wrong about many things along the way, you will grow closer to the truth and life.
I want to remind you of biblical salvation because I know I am about to ask you to do something that may be very hard.
Fundamentalism is comfortable because it is well defined, like a boat fighting against uncertain waters. The presence of the boat has made you believe that without it you will drown. I am asking you to step out of the boat of fundamentalism, to walk atop uncertain waters, and I am calling upon the Bible to assure you that doing so is no risk to your life.
Let go of your expectations so that you don’t end up rejecting Jesus many of the Pharisees did. Let go so that you can accept Jesus for whoever he really ends up being.
Be free from the fear of being wrong, finding peace in knowing that each instance of being wrong is like a rung on a ladder that you thought was the last one only to find another to pull you closer to the truth.
Be free from the fear of people whose beliefs are contrary from your own for they can help you discover in what ways you may be wrong, granting you the opportunity to grow yet closer to the truth.
Be free from the anger of feeling like contrary beliefs are an attack on you and those you love.
Be free from feeling like you need to hurt your relationships in the name of spiritual safety.
Be free to be wrong about anything and everything, because you are a limited and fallible human being who is humbly designed to lean upon conditional trust and not absolute certainty.
Be free from fundamentalism.
