[ weird things ] | the fundamentalist problem of a modern society

the fundamentalist problem of a modern society

People of faith contribute to society in countless ways. Fundamentalists, however, are a millstone around its neck.
fiery fundamentalist fire and brimstone

There is a bitter Israeli joke reported by some journalists who write about the nation’s rapidly growing schism between secular Jews and devout Haredi fundamentalists. It states that one third of the country works, a third pays taxes, and a third serves in the military. Unfortunately it’s the same third of the country. Sadly, that’s not a far cry from the truth since in Israel, fundamentalist Jews often live off government welfare for the religious, do not work because they believe their only task in life should be reading and re-reading holy texts, and can’t be drafted to serve in the military. And so the secular Jews fight wars, work, and pay taxes while the Haredi sit in synagogues, have families with 8 to 12 children, and, to put it bluntly, mooch off the secular population, loudly protesting any resistance to their whims in the lowest and most underhanded ways imaginable. With huge families they don’t bother educating, they have virtually no useful skills to contribute to modern society, and as secularists limit themselves to one or two kids, their population is growing by leaps and bounds. Israel has a serious fundamentalist problem which will have to be confronted soon, and from which we need to learn.

As has been noted before, fundamentalism is antithetical to the modern world for a whole host of reasons, and a society trapped in the past as required by extreme religious dogma, can’t adapt to the changing world it inhabits. Israel’s economic game plan relies heavily on research and technology, primarily computing and all applications of it, ranging from social media to weapons design and security. Huge investments in medicine, basic research, and computer science require a workforce that completed the prototypical modern education heavy in science and mathematics. And guess what the rapidly growing Haredi populations usually consider heretical distractions from studying the Torah and Talmud? Exactly that. While the government wants to keep plowing cash to create the most modern economy we can imagine, it’s facing the fact that many of those who are just the right age to either take full advantage of these investments, or can start their education to reap the future benefits of this modernizing boost, have either voluntarily ruled themselves out from consideration with their religious devotion, or have been prevented by their fundamentalist parents from becoming scientists, or researchers, or engineers. It’s a textbook example of the kind of thing that gets Dawkins and Harris fired up, a denial of education and knowledge through imposed dogmatic ignorance and arrogance.

And this is not to mention the political and social fallout from a fundamentalist swarm either. Secular Israelis will fume about stories of Haredi blocking ambulances from crossing their districts on Sabbath, demanding a strict obedience to the Torah’s prohibition of work on that day even if this results in someone’s death because it must have been G-d’s will to take this person’s soul on Sabbath. If you believe the claims, people have died because ambulances either didn’t get to them in time, or because the patients didn’t get to a hospital quickly enough to start treatment. Trying to negotiate with Jewish fundamentalists seems futile. After all, how can you have a productive discussion with those who believe that their opinions are actually divine edicts and you’re a sinner who is disobeying the world of G-d rather than a person with opinions and ideas that need to be heard and discussed in more depth? If you visit Israel, you’ll see a country divided into a population trying to keep up with the modern world and embrace its challenges, and a population which confines itself to the 18th century and regards their fellow citizens who are scientifically educated and modernized with thinly veiled contempt, if not outright pity and disgust. What could be a successful case study in how to use government investments in science and technology to boost the economy and education is being hampered by arrogant dogmatism.

Of course this is not a perfect look into the future of the United States in which Christian fundamentalists gain inordinate political power since they do believe in science and technology as long as they don’t run contrary to their beliefs with their application, and wouldn’t spend all their time only studying the Bible. They would be more than willing to serve in the military since they see themselves as holy warriors, and serve already. In the grand scheme of things however, outsized fundamentalist influence on American politics would defund a lot of scientific and research programs, casting them as a waste of public cash, keep hobbling science classes by either injecting religious connotations into them or forcing them to stay mum about crucial concepts in both biology and physics, and trigger many highly unpleasant social changes which would force religious dogmas into law. All of it is being done now and while so far, promoting social archconservative views in public is just an easy way to win votes for right wing candidates while implementations of these views generally stall in the legislative branch or get watered down into irrelevance on riders to funding bills, extremely powerful and really devoted fundamentalist lobbies could start imposing their will through politics. And in a day and age when we should be investing into economic modernization, we literally can’t afford to step back in time and simply bow before the whims of those convinced that they have divine edicts to make their own rules.

# politics // economy / fundamentalism / fundamentalists / religion


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