Friday, December 28, 2012

What Is A Fundamentalist?

Fundamentalist.  I love this word.  I'd wager that your mind went in a particular direction and brought into your consciousness certain images and ideas, something you read once, or a past experience with that word.  Fundamentalist.  I would even entertain the idea that it nearly has onomatopoeic power, like *ding* or *boing*.  Fundamentalist.  If you deviate at all, it may be to only think of synonyms for such a word, and I’ll leave those up to you to chew on and volunteer none of my own.  Fundamentalist.  I'm intentionally not attaching a picture this post just to leave your visual imagination alone.  Fundamentalist.  So, let’s keep walking in the direction your mind pointed you, and I’ll try to walk parallel with you for a bit in the hopes of helping you truly accept what happens in your mind when you hear or read that word, and at the end, I'll ask you if you’re brave enough and willing enough to go one step further.

Can a person be a fundamentalist volleyball player, hand washer, comedian, or lip balm user? Probably not.  No, I can probably not apply the term fundamentalist to these things.  But, for the sake of our little stroll together, I'm willing to do so by perhaps looking at it in terms of there being a "fundamentally" right or wrong way to engage in these activities, or perform these tasks or jobs.  For example, I can wash my hands with fresh manure with the hopes of cleaning my hands, or I can apply lip balm to dry ice with the hopes of soothing my chapped lips.  We can agree that this would be a wrong way to go about achieving the desired effects of those actions because by performing the actions these ways we can rationally remove our ability to state that we are in fact washing our hands or using lip balm.  We can agree that to engage in the act of hand washing, successfully washing one’s hands, is not to use excrement as a cleansing and rinsing agent.  We can agree that to engage in the act of using lip balm, successfully applying lip balm to one’s lips, one can safely bet on the higher chance of probability that those lips may experience more soothing comfort were one to not apply the balm to frozen CO2 instead.

So perhaps being a fundamentalist only applies to doing things fundamentally "wrong".  I can reasonably state that one can have “bad fundamentals” as a volleyball player, but they would still be engaged in the act of playing volleyball - of being on the court and performing the effort of playing the game.  However, would one be correct in saying that a fundamentalist volleyball player would be one that has sound fundamentals which allows them to serve over the net perfectly, without fail, every single time they attempt to do so?  It's a stretch. Doubtful at best.  Similarly, is a comedian whose whole act is to go on stage and just sit there on a chair, staring blankly into a random direction in the distance, a fundamentally bad comedian or just a fundamentalist comedian because he genuinely believes that his act ought to be riotously funny and the crowd just doesn't get the joke because they don't have the truly deep insight he does into true comedy?  Or would he in fact just not really be a comedian?  If he’s making genuine and sincere efforts with an act like that, but he just isn't funny, then would that be any different than the volleyball player who just has fundamentally bad serving skills?  Probably not.  Perhaps desire and intent are important distinctions to make regarding the efforts because it just doesn't work otherwise...  but I doubt it.

What’s more, am I a computer fundamentalist because I only use Windows based operating systems, and not a Mac?  Probably not.  Are there fundamentals missing from my driving skills because I choose to drive a Ford, and not a Chevy?  Probably not.  Is it then simply nonsensical, given all the examples above, to try to use the term fundamentalist in describing or relating to anything other than what that word is known as fact to be associated with?  Do we accept the definition of the term “Fundamentalist” as it currently exists, or will we try our best to escape reality like I did with my examples and choose instead to engage in word play and definition dodging?  Here’s my challenge:  If you are willing to accept what is known to be the definition of the word fundamentalist, synonyms and all, then ask yourself this question:  Can that word exist without the fundamentals of what one can be a fundamentalist about - can the word fundamentalist exist without its root word?  If you think yes, then either please re-read the examples above, or take a nap, or eat a snack to raise your blood sugar, or quickly embrace how difficult it would be to define the word eyelid without using the word "eye" or to not even imply that an eyelid has anything to do with the word “eye”…   annnnd now we’re back on track.

So, I challenge you to embrace and not grapple with the following:  Knowing what your mind gave back to you when you gave it the word fundamentalist, can you really be intellectually honest with yourself when you attempt to disconnect that word from its root?  By holding the source of where fundamentalists get their ideas from, can you really simultaneously disconnect that from your mind's vision of a fundamentalist? Probably not.

We need to accept that religious fundamentalists are not the problem.
The problem... are the fundamentals of religions.
Start holding followers of religions accountable.
Take a stand.  They do not have a free pass.

Learn With All Our Tools


I want to address the ideas of fear and obsession of the mind.  I've come into ideas about what fear of doing or not doing something can do to one’s life.  I've experienced what that looks like in my life, and the results are rarely worth bragging about.  Marching through the fear of being uncomfortable and of learning something new is a great experience if looked at as a challenge that demands attention.  Learning scary but cool stuff like computers, or physics, or even how to behave on a first date is all there for the taking online.  I was afraid of computers 7 years ago.  Today, I have a modestly successful IT career, by my impossible standards anyways, that lays waste to how feeble an excuse for inaction fear and uncertainty are allowed to provide.  If one is willing to throw intense learning efforts at something with reckless abandon and obsess about it, then you are in business in the IT world.  If you have an obsessive mind, you are a very fortunate person by my account.  But, it is only a double edged sword of both asset and liability if you allow it to be.  How it sculpts or cuts your life depends upon if you choose to have willingness or fear wield it.

My late Father wouldn't and couldn't stop learning about all things he could, both about things he agreed with and wisely about things he didn't.  I was wrong in how I viewed his obsession to do so and his encouraging me to do the same; that it wasn't just an annoying geeky liability.  Again, I was wrong.  Learning, for my him, and now for me, was experienced the same way with Asimov and Feynman and many others, and I recall feeling my chest collapse when I related to that kind of mind while watching interviews of great scientists.  Hedonism.  Hedonism!  It was a word I was taught to fear while I was in orthodox faith healing alcoholics anonymous.  Having it happen this way is a luxury I hope others also relate to.

What I have encountered in my efforts towards certain areas of debate since November of 2011, though, has brought fear back to my life, but it is mixed with sadness for others and even more gratitude for my situation.  I've come to find out that it isn't just everyone that is given the opportunity to cross the line into hedonistic learning or understand what that looks like, and I really struggle to accept that.

The 5 Year Plan

November of 2011 is the approximate time period in which I decided that I couldn't sit quietly on the sidelines anymore.  I stayed quiet for fear of what might happen if I did engage in a behavior of learning about things dangerous or taboo, of engaging in debate, of questioning where I was told I ought not look or go out of others fear for me if I did so, and yes, just flat out arguing.  It was largely a self-imposed exile from some topics using those tools that was taken on suggestion from those that knew where my life was at during the late part of 2006, and I agreed.  I chose not to explore, not to poke around in realms temporarily reserved for others.  I instead worked on myself and focused on improving my life, which ironically gave me a better capacity to step back up to the plate in November 2011 with a cleaner slate and more intense focus than I could have hoped for.  I don’t know if that is good or bad, and it doesn't have to either.  It's simply happening, and let the chips fall where they may.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Inspirations and Acknowledgements


This blog is dedicated to my late Father, Judge Dennis A. Schneider.  An intelligent and kind man whose reasons for leaving seminary before he completed his first year I will never know for certain.  His standing orders were simple: Read. Read everything.

Honorable mentions of inspiration: Monty Python, Carl Sagan, Michio Kaku, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lawrence M. Krauss, Phil Plait, Richard Dawkins, Brian Cox, Sam Harris, Richard Feynman, Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, Nicolaus Copernicus, Charles Darwin, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Michael Shermer, Melodysheep, Louis C.K., Clancy Imislund, Bill Burr, Bertrand Russell, Lewis Black, Sandy Beach, George Carlin, Stephen Hawking, John Stewart, Dr. David Marshal, Dr. Sharon Carson, and \m/etal.