Fundamentalism the oldest folly

Dictionaries define a fundamentalist as ‘one who believes in the literal

interpretation and the infallibility of the Bible’ as if fundamentalism
were unique to Christianity alone. This definition may be modified
some day, but, the problem of fundamentalism will continue to torment
us. Even the rationalists and the atheists are not free from its evil
influence. The literal interpretation of the purpose of life as
suggested by the religious books (pleasing god and striving for heaven
etc.) does not appeal to them so they deny any purpose whatsoever.

Before we embark upon the purpose of life, it would be prudent to

resolve the old dispute about god’s existence. Believers say that god
created the universe whereas the atheists say that it has come up by
chance. Although logically, devoid of emotion, god and chance convey
the same human ignorance about how this beautiful cosmos came
about. But, what distinguishes the two, in practice, is the element of
purpose. When an atheist discovers a deep purpose in life his chance
becomes god. God or chance is, therefore, our choice depending upon
our own mental states. We generally oscillate between them before
maturity.

Now, for the sake of simplicity and immediacy, let us restrict our
discussion to the purpose of human life. And even among us, it would
be helpful to bear in mind, the purpose, as a member of species is
different from the purpose as an individual. Since each human being is
as unique as his/her genes and environment, it is reasonable to accept
that his/her purpose as an individual, too, is unique. After these
elementary reservations, self-actualization stands out as the general
purpose for human life. Even the realization of self or enlightenment
is merely the process of self-actualization for some of us.

Coming back to fundamentalism, after the hasty retreat of

rationalists from the domain of religion, the priests of every shade
were free to misinterpret the purpose of human life to the extent
that it became one for all - a blind adherence to a particular creed.
This period when religion was a fig leaf for moral fascism is known in
history as the Dark Age.
If fundamentalism has been bread and butter for the clergy, it
served as a shield against ignominy for the hypocrites who are
generally rich and powerful through unfair means. Where religion is
only ritual deep, they easily pass off as religious and attain
respectability by erecting a place of worship. The simple minded
believers have been the victims who, besides being exploited in
numerous ways, fought wars against each other, in the name of god
and religion, of course.

Thus we see that, due to fundamentalism or literal interpretation of

our scriptures, we either deny any purpose to human life or we learn it
by rote or we only pretend to know it. All these attitudes are harmful
for the moral well being of a society. Present moral stupor in the
world may be directly attributed to the cumulative effect of
unbridled fundamentalism down the ages. Industrialization has only
exposed our incapacity to cope with technological and material
progress.