Text
Fundamentalism has one interesting insight. It perceives the science-based, libertarian, humanist culture of the modern era as being itself a kind of new religion — and its deadly enemy. We fail to see this because we are immersed in it, it dominates more than nine-tenths of our lives, and it is so amorphous. It has no officially recognised scriptures, creeds, prophets or organisation. Rather, it is a loose coalition of many different forces, kept on the move and in constant self-criticism and self-correction by an active and striving ethic derived from Protestantism. So far as this new faith — if that is what it is — has theologians, priests and prophets, they are, respectively, the scientists and scholars whose business it is to criticise and increase knowledge, the artists who refine our perceptions and open up new life-possibilities, and the armies of idealistic campaigners who urge us to become active in hundreds of good causes.
So seductive and compelling is this new faith that it is somehow impossible to avoid adopting its language and its way of thinking. They are everywhere, and irresistible. That is what makes it like a religion: once we are in the midst of it and do not appreciate how strong and distinctive a flavour it has, we are largely unaware of its awesome, unstoppable, disruptive evangelistic power.
Fundamentalism has one interesting insight. It perceives the science-based, libertarian, humanist culture of the modern era as being itself a kind of new religion — and its deadly enemy. We fail to see this because we are immersed in it, it dominates more than nine-tenths of our lives, and it is so amorphous. It has no officially recognised scriptures, creeds, prophets or organisation. Rather, it is a loose coalition of many different forces, kept on the move and in constant self-criticism and self-correction by an active and striving ethic derived from Protestantism. So far as this new faith — if that is what it is — has theologians, priests and prophets, they are, respectively, the scientists and scholars whose business it is to criticise and increase knowledge, the artists who refine our perceptions and open up new life-possibilities, and the armies of idealistic campaigners who urge us to become active in hundreds of good causes.
So seductive and compelling is this new faith that it is somehow impossible to avoid adopting its language and its way of thinking. They are everywhere, and irresistible. That is what makes it like a religion: once we are in the midst of it and do not appreciate how strong and distinctive a flavour it has, we are largely unaware of its awesome, unstoppable, disruptive evangelistic power.
Don Cuppitt. The sea of faith. London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1985, p. 181 (adapted).
Judge — right (C) or wrong (E) — the following item with reference to the text.
The pronoun “its” (l.2) refers to “humanist culture” (l.1).
The pronoun “its” (l.2) refers to “humanist culture” (l.1).
