a chat about fundamentalism

Edited transcript of a chat with the delightful amaebi:

kayrevt: I also wrestled with Kung some more

Mary Ann: Did Kung yield rewards?

kayrevt: i am struggling to absorb him, at this point…. but he seems to be drawing a line from Catholicism failing to cope with Galileo and Copernicus, to Protestant fundamentalism

kayrevt: and i am finding myself admiring, again, the Amish and conservative Mennonites, for their honest and relatively consistent fundamentalism

Mary Ann: Ah! And its humility and Menschiness, I’m thinking.

kayrevt: yes, and actually largely following the teachings of Jesus even with regard to those who disagree with them (with of course the horrible exception of internal disagreement)

kayrevt: they reject as much as they can of modern society because to them it seems inconsistent with Christianity....

kayrevt: they don’t drive cars, use computers, participate in modern society to a huge degree, and then cherrypick certain areas to reject and revile

kayrevt: they also haven’t bought into the idolization of Logic and Reason

Mary Ann: Who idolizes logic and reason?

kayrevt: our typical American Protestant Fundamentalists (may I go with APFs?) try to prove their faith with logic and reason, in essence trying to beat modernity at its own game

kayrevt: Amish confronted with a fossil, will probably say more or less that they don’t know exactly how they fit with the Biblical creation story, and moreover, don’t particularly care

kayrevt: APFs have to find a logical (by their lights) explanation

Mary Ann: Ah, all that scriptural logic-chopping. Got it.

Mary Ann: And the long, long inference chains.

kayrevt: and when all that fails, the Devil  :p

(To be clear, I don't actually find the Amish position intellectually satisfying; I just admire their honesty and consistency in holding it.)