I just engaged in a discussion about fundimentalism, where the question was 'is it worth debating with someone once you've found out they are a fundamentalist?"
Now religious fundamentalism isn't a great thing in my opinion. I believe it is a form of religious slavery, but I also have to accept that this is my own opinion.
My intitial response was that the question was loaded. It assumes that fundamentalist thinking is wrong to begin with, and that non-fundamentalist thinking is somehow of a higher plane. Now at my core, I very much think this is true, and that's an issue I think I need to deal with. In a sense, I de-value these people. It's odd, because I've learned to accept most other world philosophies as simply different than my own. I can accept athiesm becasue I can understand the reasoning behind it, I can see how someone would be a muslim, and I don't see that as 'less than me' simply becuase I have a different approach.
But what about the generally unaccptable ideas? Generally we reject them, and de-value those who hold them. Racism, anti-homosexuality, anti-semitism, etc. The problem is this: I see these as destructive ideas, ones that tear people apart, so I reject them. But I am forced to realize that I am judging them based on my own ideals, and that when one considers each of these ideas on its own, there is nothing in and of each one that makes them 'wrong.' To reject them, we need to say that another set of ideals is fundamentally right.
An illustration:
Vixen hates Red nosed reindeers. Always has. They don't have his perfect black nose. Rudolph hates Vixen for his ideals. Rudolph believes in equality.
Whose right in this situation? Both of them sadly. There is nothing intrinsic to equality to make it 'right' and nothing intrinsic to racism to make it 'wrong.' We like equality better, and therfore call racism wrong.
This is the curse of modernism.
But to be clear, this is not my own opinion. My view is that there is a moral absolute becuase this world is not purposeless. It was created, and therefore there are laws that govern us. Racism is wrong because equality is right when judged by this moral absolute.
But the kicker that I'm struggling with is how do I deal with the racist? To devalue him/her is to be equally racist. And worse, I know that God somehow loves the racist. Hates the ideals, but loves the person. I don't get it. He sees something I am apparently missing.
That's my thought for the day.
