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Originally Posted by romansh  Quote:
Originally Posted by Skepticologist Have you noticed that hard-core fundamentalists rarely stick around these kinds of forums for more than a couple of weeks? It's quite obvious that that don't log on with open minds. I really think getting online and doing battle with those of us who insist on reason and logic as the basis for our beliefs is sort of a badge of courage for them. | Hi Skept ... I know what you mean .... but we all have our motivations.
In my intro I promised a month ..... seven months later .. I'm still here.
My wife still thinks I spend way too much time here. She's probably right ... I need to get a life.
Regarding the fundamentalists ... we are not going to convert them now. I think it is like you 'said', they are here as a test of faith. The question for me is, can we plant a seed of doubt. And if so, what is the best tool ..... a bit of nurture or a base ball bat? .. 
all the best |
Some very interesting and well-taken points. Your reply brought to mind my sister, who 8 years ago was about as staunch a fundamentalist as you could hope to, or hope not to, encounter. Despite my prescient warnings, she toed the neo-con line, even to the point of holding George W. Bush out to be some kind of modern-day Messiah because he said he'd been "born again" and that he prayed every day. I was completely ineffectual in influencing her vote in either the 2000 or 2004 elections.
But a couple of weeks ago, she blew me away by informing me that she's now, just as staunchly, an Obama supporter. To quote a tired old Christian hymn, she has "seen the light". Which is all well and good for now. But I have no doubt that, once the economy gets through with its current dips and loops at the behest of the elusive business cycle, she'll be right back to lambasting the welfare state (despite being scantly more than one paycheck away from joining its ranks), pushing for tort reform (thereby effectively closing off the only viable recourse she'd have should the powers that be decide they want to add her pitifully small resources to their millions and billions), and villifying anyone who's not exactly like her (or at least who's unlike the people her children have turned out to be).
I think you can see that I'm not particularly optimistic about the prospects for the enlightenment of the fundamentalists. It will be transitory at its very best. Consequently, I think you're pretty much right in your assessment that the best we can do is to continue planting "seeds of doubt", so that, at least at junctures such as the one at present, which can be loosely considered "teachable moments", we might inject at least a modicum of common sense into the equation.