Understanding the Mentality and World View of the Christian Fundamentalist

[pillars]

The cognitive dissonance necessary to be a Christian fundamentalist short circuits rational thought. Instead they emote because that is what a fear based religion is all about.

It's very difficult to transcend that. It really does make it impossible for them to think rationally about certain subjects; it used to literally cause me panic attacks when I was in the process of leaving.

 

[pillars]

And if you hate Christian fundamentalists? You are an enemy of Jesus Christ.

Fundamentalists are the worst enemy to the christian faith that has ever existed.

 

[Thunderbird]

Communist atheists in only 80 years killed about 94 million! And the number of deaths caused by atheism is much higher. An atheist, Stalin, along with his fellow Christian-hater Hitler started the worst war in human history. And don't forget all the deaths caused by right wing atheists like Mussolini, who was in part inspired by another blood-thirsty atheist Nietzsche. And don't forget the Armenian genocide, committed by secular fanatics: the Young Turks.

Please also remember that the austere atheist philosophy has never attracted a large number of believers. Under 3% of the world population is atheist. So a small number of atheists are responsible for a tremendous amount of carnage. On a per capita basis atheists are by far the worst murderers in human history.

 

[guno]

Beliefs have consequences, and one consequence of evangelical belief is that decent people end up doing ugly things in order to recruit converts and save souls. It is because they care about being good that they do harm. In the much quoted words of Steven Weinberg, “With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” The mechanism by which this happens is that religion creates a narrative in which the evil serves a higher good.

A new book by Mikey Weinstein, No Snowflake in an Avalanche, offers a window into how corrosive the Great Commission can be. It chronicles a harrowing decade in, what is to Weinstein, a fight to the death for religious freedom. You may be familiar with fragments of the story. When fundamentalist Christians at the Air Force Academy began goading and harassing Weinstein’s cadet son, Curtis, they awoke a grizzly bear.

How the Fundamentalist Mind Compels Conservative Christians to Force Their Beliefs on You Alternet

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Believe I finally understand religious people. They crave adoration and attention, power, and wealth. And they obtain these by playing religious-person.

 

[guno]

Believe I finally understand religious people. They crave adoration and attention, power, and wealth. And they obtain these by playing religious-person.

The leader maybe yes, but their followers no

 

[Derideo_Te]

Take their lies about gays for example. They have every right to not condone gays but they are sinning when lie about it being a "choice".

Well they are not 'lying', in the sense that they are not intentionally trying to deceive someone or convince someone of something that they know to be false. They simply don't understand what certain scripture actually says, what it is referring to, or the history of it. In other words, they are not "lying" because, to the best of their understanding, they think what they are saying is the absolute truth.

Now what I think you can often stick them on is a complete refusal to entertain even the mere possibility that they may be incorrect and total stubbornness in the face of historical and literary evidence. For example, those who dismiss historical evidence because the one presenting it happens to be an atheist or agnostic. Or perhaps those who claim the Bible has never changed and when you put two manuscripts in front of their face of the same book that are completely different they still insist that the Bible is inerrant.

I think you can also get many of them on the hypocrisy shown when they attempt to oppress certain demographics of society which stands in direct contrast to the message of love, goodwill, charity, and treating your neighbors as you would yourself preached by Jesus, Paul, and the rest of the apostles. On those things, you have a point.

HOWEVER....

You overlook that in the OP it is stating that people who attempt to save you are doing so out of a sincere desire to help you. You may not wish to receive their help, but in their minds they are trying to do something nice for you. Those who react with hostility, such as Guno, overlook, or do not care, that they are trying to give you something they consider beautiful and wonderful. Slamming the shit out of them, regardless of how misguided you feel they are, shows a true lack of character. Furthermore, there is nothing more hypocritical than people like Guno slamming Christian fundamentalists for their intolerance of other perspectives.

So there is plenty of hypocrisy, intolerance, and 'forcing one's beliefs upon others' to go around. They are not Christian traits, nor are they even religious traits. They are human traits which can be seen in politics, race relations, economics, you name it, and atheists can be every bit as guilty of such things as people of faith.

Unless I misread the OP it was all about the fear that drives and controls fundamentalists. When their motivation is fear based then whatever they are offering is not based on a "sincere desire to help you". Instead it is out of fear that you will end up in whatever they imagine hell might be like. So no, it is not "beautiful and wonderful" to want others to share your own fears.

And no, I am not "slamming the shit out of them" and neither is the OP. Instead it is a perfectly rational and logical examination of the fear based motivations driving those who are fundamentalists.

Personally I am tolerant of all theists up to the point where they violate the Constitutional rights of others to be free from their religion. Unfortunately it is usually the fundamentalists who cross that line because they emote rather than think rationally.

Earlier when I posted about rigid intolerance being the motivation for killing in the name of the deity that applies just as much to the Christian fundamentalists in this nation murdering doctors and bombing abortion clinics as it does to suicide terrorists strapping bombs to themselves.

That is unacceptable and does need to be called out for what it is IMO. Those are criminal acts and no amount of fundamentalist beliefs can justify them.

I could tell from the clown face that it was a stupid OP. Then I read it and knew it was a stupid OP. The percentage of Christians willing to do these kinds of acts can not exceed the moral less atheists that do horrendous acts of violence.

The history of the world is drenched in the blood of religious warmongering.

 

[Derideo_Te]

Unless I misread the OP it was all about the fear that drives and controls fundamentalists. When their motivation is fear based then whatever they are offering is not based on a "sincere desire to help you". Instead it is out of fear that you will end up in whatever they imagine hell might be like. So no, it is not "beautiful and wonderful" to want others to share your own fears.

And no, I am not "slamming the shit out of them" and neither is the OP. Instead it is a perfectly rational and logical examination of the fear based motivations driving those who are fundamentalists.

Personally I am tolerant of all theists up to the point where they violate the Constitutional rights of others to be free from their religion. Unfortunately it is usually the fundamentalists who cross that line because they emote rather than think rationally.

Earlier when I posted about rigid intolerance being the motivation for killing in the name of the deity that applies just as much to the Christian fundamentalists in this nation murdering doctors and bombing abortion clinics as it does to suicide terrorists strapping bombs to themselves.

That is unacceptable and does need to be called out for what it is IMO. Those are criminal acts and no amount of fundamentalist beliefs can justify them.

I could tell from the clown face that it was a stupid OP. Then I read it and knew it was a stupid OP. The percentage of Christians willing to do these kinds of acts can not exceed the moral less atheists that do horrendous acts of violence.

You provided no facts for your pointless and cliched' "moral less atheists" because it's indefensible. Atheism is not a moral code and with regard to the history of religions and the atrocities they have committed in furtherance of their gawds, religions are hardly an example of morality.

Here. Atheist Greatest Mass Murderers - Crossroads of Religion - tribe.net

Unless I misread the OP it was all about the fear that drives and controls fundamentalists. When their motivation is fear based then whatever they are offering is not based on a "sincere desire to help you". Instead it is out of fear that you will end up in whatever they imagine hell might be like. So no, it is not "beautiful and wonderful" to want others to share your own fears.

And no, I am not "slamming the shit out of them" and neither is the OP. Instead it is a perfectly rational and logical examination of the fear based motivations driving those who are fundamentalists.

Personally I am tolerant of all theists up to the point where they violate the Constitutional rights of others to be free from their religion. Unfortunately it is usually the fundamentalists who cross that line because they emote rather than think rationally.

Earlier when I posted about rigid intolerance being the motivation for killing in the name of the deity that applies just as much to the Christian fundamentalists in this nation murdering doctors and bombing abortion clinics as it does to suicide terrorists strapping bombs to themselves.

That is unacceptable and does need to be called out for what it is IMO. Those are criminal acts and no amount of fundamentalist beliefs can justify them.

I could tell from the clown face that it was a stupid OP. Then I read it and knew it was a stupid OP. The percentage of Christians willing to do these kinds of acts can not exceed the moral less atheists that do horrendous acts of violence.

You provided no facts for your pointless and cliched' "moral less atheists" because it's indefensible. Atheism is not a moral code and with regard to the history of religions and the atrocities they have committed in furtherance of their gawds, religions are hardly an example of morality.

Here. Atheist Greatest Mass Murderers - Crossroads of Religion - tribe.net

Good for you . You know how to cut and paste. Unfortunately, you're just too lazy to actually look past you're own ignorance and understand the facts.

Why is it always Atheists vs Christians Page 27 US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

your... not you're... It's not my ignorance. It's the fact that someone who does not believe in a deity is much more likely to be a mass murderer.

Assumes facts not in evidence.

 

[Derideo_Te]

You provided no facts for your pointless and cliched' "moral less atheists" because it's indefensible. Atheism is not a moral code and with regard to the history of religions and the atrocities they have committed in furtherance of their gawds, religions are hardly an example of morality.

Here. Atheist Greatest Mass Murderers - Crossroads of Religion - tribe.net

You provided no facts for your pointless and cliched' "moral less atheists" because it's indefensible. Atheism is not a moral code and with regard to the history of religions and the atrocities they have committed in furtherance of their gawds, religions are hardly an example of morality.

Here. Atheist Greatest Mass Murderers - Crossroads of Religion - tribe.net

Good for you . You know how to cut and paste. Unfortunately, you're just too lazy to actually look past you're own ignorance and understand the facts.

Why is it always Atheists vs Christians Page 27 US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

your... not you're... It's not my ignorance. It's the fact that someone who does not believe in a deity is much more likely to be a mass murderer.

Hitler, Hirohito, Mussolini, the Inquisitors, and Stalin the seminary boy all such you are wrong.

Jozef Stalin 23,000,000 Million
Adolf Hitler 12,000,000 Million
Mao Ze-Dong 49-78,000,000 Million
Kim Il Sung 1.6 million – Sungism
Hideki Tojo 5,000,000 Million -
Pol Pot 1,700,000 Million

Just because they went to seminary school doesn't mean they were religious at all. They were atheists. Many people have had religious up bringings. That doesn't necessarily make them religious.

Adolf Hitler 12,000,000 Million

6 million of Hitler's victims were Jews. Waging a war of annihilation against an entire religion is a a religious war and Hitler was a self proclaimed Christian throughout his life.

Hideki Tojo 5,000,000 Million

Tojo worshiped the Japanese Emperor as a God. The Japanese military fought to the death for their Emperor God. The term Kamikaze means Divine Wind. They were fighting a religious war.

Your ignorance of the facts is glaringly obvious.

 

[SUPERMAN1929]

Here. Atheist Greatest Mass Murderers - Crossroads of Religion - tribe.net

Here. Atheist Greatest Mass Murderers - Crossroads of Religion - tribe.net

Good for you . You know how to cut and paste. Unfortunately, you're just too lazy to actually look past you're own ignorance and understand the facts.

Why is it always Atheists vs Christians Page 27 US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

your... not you're... It's not my ignorance. It's the fact that someone who does not believe in a deity is much more likely to be a mass murderer.

Hitler, Hirohito, Mussolini, the Inquisitors, and Stalin the seminary boy all such you are wrong.

Jozef Stalin 23,000,000 Million
Adolf Hitler 12,000,000 Million
Mao Ze-Dong 49-78,000,000 Million
Kim Il Sung 1.6 million – Sungism
Hideki Tojo 5,000,000 Million -
Pol Pot 1,700,000 Million

Just because they went to seminary school doesn't mean they were religious at all. They were atheists. Many people have had religious up bringings. That doesn't necessarily make them religious.

Adolf Hitler 12,000,000 Million

6 million of Hitler's victims were Jews. Waging a war of annihilation against an entire religion is a a religious war and Hitler was a self proclaimed Christian throughout his life.

Hideki Tojo 5,000,000 Million

Tojo worshiped the Japanese Emperor as a God. The Japanese military fought to the death for their Emperor God. The term Kamikaze means Divine Wind. They were fighting a religious war.

Your ignorance of the facts is glaringly obvious.

Hitler was making a genetically pure race which is atheistic/science bullshit. Jews are a race and religion... He blamed the Jews for all the bad things in Germany.

 

[Derideo_Te]

Good for you . You know how to cut and paste. Unfortunately, you're just too lazy to actually look past you're own ignorance and understand the facts.

Why is it always Atheists vs Christians Page 27 US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum

your... not you're... It's not my ignorance. It's the fact that someone who does not believe in a deity is much more likely to be a mass murderer.

Hitler, Hirohito, Mussolini, the Inquisitors, and Stalin the seminary boy all such you are wrong.

Jozef Stalin 23,000,000 Million
Adolf Hitler 12,000,000 Million
Mao Ze-Dong 49-78,000,000 Million
Kim Il Sung 1.6 million – Sungism
Hideki Tojo 5,000,000 Million -
Pol Pot 1,700,000 Million

Just because they went to seminary school doesn't mean they were religious at all. They were atheists. Many people have had religious up bringings. That doesn't necessarily make them religious.

Adolf Hitler 12,000,000 Million

6 million of Hitler's victims were Jews. Waging a war of annihilation against an entire religion is a a religious war and Hitler was a self proclaimed Christian throughout his life.

Hideki Tojo 5,000,000 Million

Tojo worshiped the Japanese Emperor as a God. The Japanese military fought to the death for their Emperor God. The term Kamikaze means Divine Wind. They were fighting a religious war.

Your ignorance of the facts is glaringly obvious.

Hitler was making a genetically pure race which is atheistic/science bullshit. Jews are a race and religion... He blamed the Jews for all the bad things in Germany.

Every single one of your posts exposes your appalling ignorance.

Eugenics was developed by Francis Galton who was a Quaker. FTR Darwin based evolution on a book about capitalism written by a friend of his who was a minister of religion. Oh, and Galton and Darwin were cousins and Galton was the originator of fingerprinting.

Did you know that Hitler was a huge fan of Henry Ford who was a rabid anti-semite? Hitler presented Ford with the Iron Cross and had a portrait of Ford in his office.

http://www.franceinter.fr/sites/def...mages/423784_440706249306667_1502628400_n.jpg

So are you going to blame Henry Ford for motivating Hitler to kill 6 million Jews? Ford walked 4 miles each way to church every Sunday when he was growing up.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Hitler and holocaust deniers are mentally ill, mentally feeble, or mentally malignant, or a combination of any or all three.

 

[SUPERMAN1929]

your... not you're... It's not my ignorance. It's the fact that someone who does not believe in a deity is much more likely to be a mass murderer.

Hitler, Hirohito, Mussolini, the Inquisitors, and Stalin the seminary boy all such you are wrong.

Jozef Stalin 23,000,000 Million
Adolf Hitler 12,000,000 Million
Mao Ze-Dong 49-78,000,000 Million
Kim Il Sung 1.6 million – Sungism
Hideki Tojo 5,000,000 Million -
Pol Pot 1,700,000 Million

Just because they went to seminary school doesn't mean they were religious at all. They were atheists. Many people have had religious up bringings. That doesn't necessarily make them religious.

Adolf Hitler 12,000,000 Million

6 million of Hitler's victims were Jews. Waging a war of annihilation against an entire religion is a a religious war and Hitler was a self proclaimed Christian throughout his life.

Hideki Tojo 5,000,000 Million

Tojo worshiped the Japanese Emperor as a God. The Japanese military fought to the death for their Emperor God. The term Kamikaze means Divine Wind. They were fighting a religious war.

Your ignorance of the facts is glaringly obvious.

Hitler was making a genetically pure race which is atheistic/science bullshit. Jews are a race and religion... He blamed the Jews for all the bad things in Germany.

Every single one of your posts exposes your appalling ignorance.

Eugenics was developed by Francis Galton who was a Quaker. FTR Darwin based evolution on a book about capitalism written by a friend of his who was a minister of religion. Oh, and Galton and Darwin were cousins and Galton was the originator of fingerprinting.

Did you know that Hitler was a huge fan of Henry Ford who was a rabid anti-semite? Hitler presented Ford with the Iron Cross and had a portrait of Ford in his office.

http://www.franceinter.fr/sites/def...mages/423784_440706249306667_1502628400_n.jpg

So are you going to blame Henry Ford for motivating Hitler to kill 6 million Jews? Ford walked 4 miles each way to church every Sunday when he was growing up.

I probably would have hung out with Hitler too if he ever invited me to dinner. Also Ford walking to church 4 miles each way as a kid has nothing to do with his actual beliefs. You're a fucking moron for trying to pass shit like this off as meaning anything at all.

 

[JakeStarkey]

I probably would have hung out with Hitler too if he ever invited me to dinner. Also Ford walking to church 4 miles each way as a kid has nothing to do with his actual beliefs. You're a fucking moron for trying to pass shit like this off as meaning anything at all.

DT has hung you by your balls. So you like Hitler. OK.

 

[BluePhantom]

Unless I misread the OP it was all about the fear that drives and controls fundamentalists. When their motivation is fear based then whatever they are offering is not based on a "sincere desire to help you". Instead it is out of fear that you will end up in whatever they imagine hell might be like. So no, it is not "beautiful and wonderful" to want others to share your own fears.

You can certainly look at it that way, if you prefer, but their ultimate goal is to save you from an eternity of suffering and torment so you can instead sit on a cloud and play a harp. That's an act of love. Ultimately, they are trying to save you from pain. Now, their methods suck, and the element of fear is neither necessary nor healthy, IMO.

Further, I would argue that while fear is certainly a strong element in fundamentalist churches, it is far from the only element. Evangelicals, for example, have a burning love for God that encompasses all they do. They do not often compartmentalize their faith like most adherents to traditional denominations do. That is a great thing actually, but it can be very annoying to the rest of us.

And no, I am not "slamming the shit out of them" and neither is the OP. Instead it is a perfectly rational and logical examination of the fear based motivations driving those who are fundamentalists.

I was not intending to suggest that YOU were. The OP, on the other hand...come on, brother. You know his motivations and providing a logical and rational examination of the Christian mind wasn't it. Let's not bullshit each other here.

Personally I am tolerant of all theists up to the point where they violate the Constitutional rights of others to be free from their religion. Unfortunately it is usually the fundamentalists who cross that line because they emote rather than think rationally.

Usually yes. Are you just as emphatic when atheists violate the Constitutional rights of fundamentalist Christians to be free to practice their religion?

Earlier when I posted about rigid intolerance being the motivation for killing in the name of the deity that applies just as much to the Christian fundamentalists in this nation murdering doctors and bombing abortion clinics as it does to suicide terrorists strapping bombs to themselves. That is unacceptable and does need to be called out for what it is IMO. Those are criminal acts and no amount of fundamentalist beliefs can justify them.

You will get no argument from me on that one. However, as I am sure you are aware, fundamentalism represents the extreme element and for everything there is the opposite. Extreme atheism exists as well as a counter. There are several religious whack-jobs who post at USMB, but I think where you may err, my friend, is thinking that people like Guno are the rational counter to their insanity. In reality, Guno is every bit as extreme in his atheism as 'she who can't be named' (you know of whom I speak) is in her Christianity. They are merely opposite sides of the same coin.

I want to follow up on this, but will do so in a separate post as this is getting very long.

 

[BluePhantom]

You will get no argument from me on that one. However, as I am sure you are aware, fundamentalism represents the extreme element and for everything there is the opposite. Extreme atheism exists as well as a counter. There are several religious whack-jobs who post at USMB, but I think where you may err, my friend, is thinking that people like Guno are the rational counter to their insanity. In reality, Guno is every bit as extreme in his atheism as 'she who can't be named' (you know of whom I speak) is in her Christianity. They are merely opposite sides of the same coin.

This is a reality that I do not see many atheists recognize. They are quick to point and scold the religious extremists on the other side of the coin, but they fail to look at their side as well. What is the difference, for example, between evangelical televangelist Jesse DuPlantis and Bill Maher? On the surface it would seem they are totally different. But in reality, they are really not. They are just opposite sides of the same coin. DuPlantis uses humor, propaganda, half-truths, intolerance, and total bullshit to generate a following that will advance his point of view and impact society. Maher also uses humor, propaganda, half-truths, intolerance, and total bullshit to generate a following that will advance his point of view and impact society. Both rely upon the weak-minded, those with an inability to think for themselves, those who simply want their own point of view reinforced, and the easily impressionable in order to make a living and advance their own agenda. They are no different.

The same can be said for many: Rush Limbaugh, Kenneth Copeland, Sean Hannity, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Terry O'Neill, Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, Ed Shultz...you name it. They are all doing the same things as DuPlantis and Maher. The point is that if one is going to wag their dick at fundamentalist Christians, they need to do the same to the people on their own side of the street who do the exact same thing. I am not posting, therefore, to defend fundamentalism, which I find every bit as annoying as atheists do, but to point out that it goes both ways.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Fundamentalism, whether theist or atheist, does not work in man's best behalf. Flat fact. Don't need guno nor Jeri, neither Luddly nor TheRabbi, neither Hollie nor Sunni Man.

 

[BluePhantom]

Fundamentalism, whether theist or atheist, does work in man's best behalf. Flat fact. Don't need guno nor Jeri, neither Luddly nor TheRabbi, neither Hollie nor Sunni Man.

Do you mean "....does not work in man's...." ?

 

[JakeStarkey]

Fundamentalism, whether theist or atheist, does not [added just now] work in man's best behalf. Flat fact. Don't need guno nor Jeri, neither Luddly nor TheRabbi, neither Hollie nor Sunni Man.

Do you mean "....does not work in man's...." ?

Checking to see if folks actually read.

I have to do that with SassyRouteIrish and CrusaderFrank all the time.

Good catch.

 

[Derideo_Te]

The OP, on the other hand...come on, brother. You know his motivations and providing a logical and rational examination of the Christian mind wasn't it. Let's not bullshit each other here.

Nothing I saw in the OP spoke to any alleged motivations. What am I missing in there that you are seeing?

Are you just as emphatic when atheists violate the Constitutional rights of fundamentalist Christians to be free to practice their religion?

Absolutely. All rights must be defended, even those I disagree with. I uphold the rights of everyone to make fools of themselves, including myself.

Extreme atheism exists as well as a counter.

That is true but perhaps I simply have not seen the "evidence" that the OP falls into the "extreme atheist" category. Feel free to provide examples.