New Scientist on Fundamentalism
Oct. 22nd, 2005 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamer_easyNew Scientist recently (8 October 2005) ran a series of articles about Fundamentalist* religious belief. The articles were courteous about those beliefs and their adherents (and one piece discussed scientists' tendency to overestimate their omniscience), while still strongly challenging moves from some Fundamentalist quarters to get rid of science. I want to summarise a few key points here.
Three crucial things to know and my suggestions:
- Studies find few differences between Fundamentalists and the rest of us. They are no less sane, smart, sincere, and happy than the average person. Many of them hold comparatively "liberal" political views. Treat them with basic courtesy.
- Fundamentalist theology is not accepted by mainstream religions. Don't equate "religion" or "Christianity" with Fundamentalism or Creationism.
- There is a well-organised, well-funded political Fundamentalist movement, trying to have Intelligent Design taught as science and climate change dismissed as "superstition", with the ultimate goal of replacing science with "faith-based reasoning". Religion should be respected and taught - but not in science classrooms.
Fundamentalist believers are not a faceless bloc of crazy right-wing arseholes. One survey of Christian fundamentalists in the US found that nearly half opposed banning stem cell research, and their opinions on abortion and homosexuality were about the same as the general population. Studies have shown that Fundamentalists are not insane or stupid. They're not more likely than the rest of us to worship or obey authority figures. They're not more likely to be racist ("homophobic is a different matter"). Their thinking is no more simplistic than anyone else's. They're well-balanced, with little depression and anxiety and high scores for marital happines, optimism, and self-control. Now it's a cinch to Google up examples of vicious, illogical, unpleasant, loopy, money-grubbing Fundamentalists - but the thing to remember is that for the most part they are "happy, sincere, and healthy". They are no more devils than those of us in the "reality-based community".
One expert suggests that Fundamentalism arises out of "small group dynamics rather than personal psychology or indoctrination": a group of fellow believers become a "family" and it becomes enormously important to maintain and protect that family.
Another expert noted that "traditional religions... are geared to the needs of people in traditional agrarian societies... They see life as cyclical, not progressive..." This alarmed me a little, because it made me think at once of Paganism, with its emphasis on seasonal cycles and ideas of a golden age of agriculture and peace. OTOH, Neo-Paganism is very much a product of the "modernity" with which those traditional beliefs painfully collide: "pluralism and tolerance of other faiths, non-traditional gender roles and sexual behaviour, reliance on human reason rather than divine revelation, and democracy, which grants power to people rather than God." That collision must seem like the world has turned upside down.
Why claim a scientific basis for Fundamentalist beliefs? Because it's the dominant world view. "... a certain level of evidence is required in order for knowledge to count... they 'science-up' their faith, framing it in a way that they think ought to make sense to a scientific culture." But Fundamentalists have "failed to gain intellectual acceptance even within mainstream Christian scholarship" and their beliefs are "widely considered as irrelevant to modern theology as it is to modern science."
For some Fundamentalists, science is also politically inconvenient. George Gilder of the Discovery Institute describes climate change, pollution, and ozone depletion as "chimeras of popular science" - that is, imaginary monsters. A leaked document from the Institute on Religion and Democracy describes discrediting the Kyoto accord as a top priority.
__
* A note on terms: some folks prefer to be called evangelical Christians, Bible-believing Christians etc. (There may be Islamic equivalents of which I'm ignorant.) I mean no offence by using the catch-all term "Fundamentalist".
Three crucial things to know and my suggestions:
- Studies find few differences between Fundamentalists and the rest of us. They are no less sane, smart, sincere, and happy than the average person. Many of them hold comparatively "liberal" political views. Treat them with basic courtesy.
- Fundamentalist theology is not accepted by mainstream religions. Don't equate "religion" or "Christianity" with Fundamentalism or Creationism.
- There is a well-organised, well-funded political Fundamentalist movement, trying to have Intelligent Design taught as science and climate change dismissed as "superstition", with the ultimate goal of replacing science with "faith-based reasoning". Religion should be respected and taught - but not in science classrooms.
Fundamentalist believers are not a faceless bloc of crazy right-wing arseholes. One survey of Christian fundamentalists in the US found that nearly half opposed banning stem cell research, and their opinions on abortion and homosexuality were about the same as the general population. Studies have shown that Fundamentalists are not insane or stupid. They're not more likely than the rest of us to worship or obey authority figures. They're not more likely to be racist ("homophobic is a different matter"). Their thinking is no more simplistic than anyone else's. They're well-balanced, with little depression and anxiety and high scores for marital happines, optimism, and self-control. Now it's a cinch to Google up examples of vicious, illogical, unpleasant, loopy, money-grubbing Fundamentalists - but the thing to remember is that for the most part they are "happy, sincere, and healthy". They are no more devils than those of us in the "reality-based community".
One expert suggests that Fundamentalism arises out of "small group dynamics rather than personal psychology or indoctrination": a group of fellow believers become a "family" and it becomes enormously important to maintain and protect that family.
Another expert noted that "traditional religions... are geared to the needs of people in traditional agrarian societies... They see life as cyclical, not progressive..." This alarmed me a little, because it made me think at once of Paganism, with its emphasis on seasonal cycles and ideas of a golden age of agriculture and peace. OTOH, Neo-Paganism is very much a product of the "modernity" with which those traditional beliefs painfully collide: "pluralism and tolerance of other faiths, non-traditional gender roles and sexual behaviour, reliance on human reason rather than divine revelation, and democracy, which grants power to people rather than God." That collision must seem like the world has turned upside down.
Why claim a scientific basis for Fundamentalist beliefs? Because it's the dominant world view. "... a certain level of evidence is required in order for knowledge to count... they 'science-up' their faith, framing it in a way that they think ought to make sense to a scientific culture." But Fundamentalists have "failed to gain intellectual acceptance even within mainstream Christian scholarship" and their beliefs are "widely considered as irrelevant to modern theology as it is to modern science."
For some Fundamentalists, science is also politically inconvenient. George Gilder of the Discovery Institute describes climate change, pollution, and ozone depletion as "chimeras of popular science" - that is, imaginary monsters. A leaked document from the Institute on Religion and Democracy describes discrediting the Kyoto accord as a top priority.
__
* A note on terms: some folks prefer to be called evangelical Christians, Bible-believing Christians etc. (There may be Islamic equivalents of which I'm ignorant.) I mean no offence by using the catch-all term "Fundamentalist".
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-22 11:22 am (UTC)From adherents.com: in 2001, about three-quarters of the US population was Christian. In 2002, about half of those Christians were Protestant, about a quarter Catholic. The 2001 survey found that about 16% of the entire US population were Baptists, about 7% Methodist/Wesleyan, and about 5% Lutheran.
Of course, sheer numbers are not as important as who's got the money and the power. President Bush was brought up Episcopalian but converted to the United Methodist Church. The NS section mentions the involvement of members of the Baptist, Episcopalian, and United Methodist denominations as being part of the attack on science.
The New Scientist section notes that a 2004 survey found that 37% of Americans thought Creation should replace evolution in science classes - only about half of that 37% were evangelical Christians.
Stuff on Australia coming up.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-22 11:31 am (UTC)(I should look up stats for other Western nations - Canada, the UK, and New Zealand, just for a start - but as the anti-science campaign is based in the US, it's the central country to consider. ID proponents here have been prompted by campaigners from the US.)
no subject
Date: 2005-10-22 12:45 pm (UTC)ABC News Poll Feb. 6-10, 2004. N=1,011 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.
60% literally believe the story of Noahs Ark
61% that the world was created in 6 days
64% in the parting of the Red Sea
They were specifically asked if they believed in it as the literal truth, as distinct from a lesson or parable.
"The poll found that 75 percent of Protestants believed in the story of creation, 79 percent in the Red Sea account and 73 percent in Noah and the ark.
Among evangelical Protestants, those figures were 87 percent, 91 percent and 87 percent, respectively. Among Catholics, they were 51 percent, 50 percent and 44 percent. "
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040216-113955-2061r.htm
A Harris poll of 2,201 adults charting "Religious and Other Beliefs of Americans 2003" found last year that 93 percent of the nation's Christians believe in miracles, 95 percent in heaven, 93 percent in the virgin birth of Christ and 96 percent in Christ's resurrection.
Gallup Poll of 1,004 adults released Dec. 30 found that 61 percent of Americans believe "religion can answer all or most of today's problems,"
Another Gallup Poll released in November found that six out of every 10 Americans said religion was "very important" in their lives — compared with 28 percent of Canadians and 17 percent of the British.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-23 12:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-23 03:29 am (UTC)http://www.pollingreport.com/religion.htm (http://www.pollingreport.com/religion.htm)
no subject
Date: 2005-10-24 12:36 am (UTC)A lot of Americans know too little about the First Amendment.