To my mind, rarely ever has a word been so perverted for use. The drive to stamp out the paradigms of others for no other reason that it is inconvenient, dismissed or unappreciated flies in the face of the tolerance, understanding, compassion and humanity claimed to be had by the puritans of secularism. Hypocrites, every last one.
'Fundamentalist belief' is not exclusive to the religious, as is a very common (and very disturbing) misconception. Switch 'liberal' for 'Christian' and maybe 'conservative' for 'Muslim' - and possibly 'environmentalist' for 'Jewish' - and you find a whole new set of plainly fundamentalist, cross-denigrating extremists bent on the defeat and destruction of the others. No. To limit the notion of fundamentalism to religion is to oversimplify (and overlook a large part of) the problem.
Strangely enough, it seems that the current attitude of many of the non-religious toward the religious is that of the attitude of the religious towatd the non-religious in centuries past. Long ago the various faiths were quite hostile to those not falling into line behind the authority of the 'central control'. Members of other faiths who were unfortunate enough to be caught living in some areas dominated by others were abused, harassed, driven out and/or even killed. Now it seems the tables are turned, in many ways. Food for thought, at least.
Ah, yes... "Enlightenment".
'Fundamentalist belief' is not exclusive to the religious, as is a very common (and very disturbing) misconception. Switch 'liberal' for 'Christian' and maybe 'conservative' for 'Muslim' - and possibly 'environmentalist' for 'Jewish' - and you find a whole new set of plainly fundamentalist, cross-denigrating extremists bent on the defeat and destruction of the others. No. To limit the notion of fundamentalism to religion is to oversimplify (and overlook a large part of) the problem.
Strangely enough, it seems that the current attitude of many of the non-religious toward the religious is that of the attitude of the religious towatd the non-religious in centuries past. Long ago the various faiths were quite hostile to those not falling into line behind the authority of the 'central control'. Members of other faiths who were unfortunate enough to be caught living in some areas dominated by others were abused, harassed, driven out and/or even killed. Now it seems the tables are turned, in many ways. Food for thought, at least.