Benlog

A professor who was going to teach a course debunking the “sicence” of Creationism (aka Intelligent Design) has cancelled his plans. No doubt, his words (“fundies”) were poorly chosen. But how does the University President get away with such strong condemnation of this professor’s words, without any condemnation of the repeated insanity preached by Fundamentalists?

I take serious issue with this idea that fundamentalism is just another acceptable point of view. It’s not. Fundamentalism demeans every other point of view. It demands the conversion or the extermination of those who do not agree. Fundamentalism in every form, whether Muslim, Christian, or Jewish, should be fought, for if it isn’t, it will attempt to overwhelm and destroy those who do not agree.

So I am very happy to see that some are starting to fight this. Moderate and Progressive Jewish leaders are speaking out against Christian fundamentalism. It’s also very good news that Europe is offering an alternative to the US’s ridiculous abstinence-only sex education program. It is nothing less than criminal for the US President to declare, on AIDS day, that abstinence will help alleviate the AIDS crisis. The facts are clearly in contradiction with such an approach. Promoting such insanity is pure fundamentalism: blind religion before basic logic.

We cannot be tolerant of blind intolerance. We must fight fundamentalism. Every single one of us, in every way we can. Most importantly, it is the job of those closest to the fundamentalists to fight them. As a French/American mostly-Democrat Jew, I have a responsibility to fight Jewish extremism, far-left nutty theories, and stupid anti-Americanism in France. Moderate Republicans should take it upon themselves to fight the radical right. After all, my words don’t carry much weight with Republicans, but if moderate Republicans actually stood up for their principles of moderation, progress towards reasonable middle-ground positions would be far more likely.

If we all took it upon ourselves to fight the fringe elements of the groups we belong to, the world would be a far better place. More on this point sometime in the next few weeks.