A reader makes a valid point:
To properly understand religious fundamentalism it is necessary to realize that "fundamentalism" has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with mindset. A quote on your site by George Orwell states "to see what is in front of nose needs a constant struggle", this is indeed very true, and the fundamentalist mindset is in the relinquishing of that struggle. One no longer needs to learn the basic realities of life and build from those as all of those assumptions have already been assigned to you. In allowing ones assumptions to be co-opted by a movement, religious or otherwise, it frees a person from having to understand the basis of ones decisions, and the responsibility held therein. Fundamentalism is all about logic, not religion. The same type of argument is easily made for completely irreligious things like Nazism or Communism.
The people under these movements operate the same way, allowing ones basic assumptions of the world to be told to them, not formed by them. Thus if the question is, what leads to the rise of fundamentalism, it is necessary to look at the type of person who wants to avoid the responsibility of understanding what is in front of ones nose.
For me, fundamentalism is not just a distortion of faith but a negation of it. Faith, in my view, should not be blind. It should have the widest eyes imaginable. Nothing that is true should stand in the way of faith, unless one has already conceded that one is believing in a lie. And so science is not to be feared but embraced. And historical scholarship is to be plumbed not ignored. And debate is to be welcomed, not policed. It is only through this process of doubt and questioning that real faith emerges.
The Dish 