Peter Cameron on Fundamentalism

I've just had another post deleted at "Craig's Blog". This is getting to be quite a habit and as such, I'm starting to get used to this behaviour from Craig. Dissent to the fundamentalist (and let's make no bones about it - Craig and his sect are indeed fundamentalists) is unthinkable and must be stopped at all costs. Peter Cameron makes some very interesting comments about this phenomenon:

Argument, debate, the possibility that they might be wrong - these are not on the agenda. In any other walk of life they would be regarded as unhinged. Very few of them have ever been exposed to the simplest form of bible criticism, yet they feel qualified to tell people who have spent half a lifetime on the subject that they are barking up the wrong tree. It's rather like witchdoctor medicine confronted with real medicine. The primitive reaction is one of fear, suspicion and hostility - out with the spears and shields. And the witchdoctors themselves, of course, have vested interests to protect: their positions of control and authority. Naturally they resist. ... Fundamentalists need an enemy: an enemy both gives them their own identity and unites them. ... they stand for nothing positive at all - simply obedience to rules and the condemnation of those who break them.

- "Fundamentalism and Freedom", pp 13-14 (Doubleday:1995)