Is Allegorical Religion better than Fundamentalism?

[vulcanlogician]

My knee-jerk reaction is yes. Even though I still have plenty of criticisms of allegorical religion. 

I'm sure most of you agree with me here. So to avoid the "yes/no" dichotomy of the question that would undoubtedly result in a resounding "yes," Let's put a different spin on the question:

If you were to guess at the percentages involved in which one creates more problems, allegory or fundamentalism, how would the numbers fall? 


For me, it would be:

90% Fundamentalism

10% Allegory

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Keep in mind that I'm parsing the concepts here, not specific religious sects. Even Southern Baptists are allegorists to some degree. And Catholics are fundamentalists to some degree (even though Catholicism is seldom seen as a fundamentalist sect per se).

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Assuming we could chuck all problems that religion creates into a pie graph, which percentage of that pie graph would be resultant of fundamentalism and which would be resultant of allegorical belief?

[Anomalocaris]

Is it possible for a creed to become a religion if there isn’t a substantial strain of fundamentalism to keep it from devolving into a mere parody?

[vulcanlogician]

Fundamentalism doesn't slow down the devolution into parody. It accelerates it.

[Belacqua]

which one creates more problems, allegory or fundamentalism

Pretty hard to say. 

Fundamentalism is a late-19th century movement among American Protestants developed in reaction to modern science. From Britannica:

Christian fundamentalism, movement in American Protestantism that arose in the late 19th century in reaction to theological modernism, which aimed to revise traditional Christian beliefs to accommodate new developments in the natural and social sciences, especially the theory of biological evolution.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christi...amentalism

Is this what you mean when you use the term "fundamentalism," or something more general?

The Bible was read allegorically for centuries, almost exclusively. A literal reading does not rule out an allegorical reading. For example, it might say that God smote the Edomites. This was probably taken by many people as literally, historically true. However the meaning of the story, the reason it's in the Bible is because we are to read it allegorically as license to smite other groups who are challenging us. 

So that's a case where an allegorical reading would lead to violence. 

Maybe advocating violence in self-defense of one's group is good, though. There are many people on the forum who are all for violence in cases where one political division is threatened by another political division, even if ethnically they are nearly the same. 

We also have to think clearly about what "creates more problems" means. I suspect that both allegorical and fundamentalist readings prompt many people to disagree with my personal views, which are very much in line with 21st century Western bourgeois liberalism. So if "creates problems" means to oppose actively the beliefs of my tribe, then both styles of reading will create problems. 

Allegorical readings may be more likely to allow readings that are in keeping with my 21st century Western bourgeois liberalism. Whether that is a good thing, or just a conformist thing, I can't say.

[vulcanlogician]

Something less general.

[The Grand Nudger]

I think fundamentalism is probably better. Sometimes it doesn't seem like that because so much of contemporary religion has shit for fundamentals.

[Anomalocaris]

Fundamentalism doesn't slow down the devolution into parody. It accelerates it.

The difference is fundamentalism devolves into a parody when seen from the outside.    A creed based solely self-professed allegories devolves into a parody when seen from the inside.     Nothing worthy of the name religion can be so without being seen as a parody from the outside.    A creed won’t devolve into a religion if it is seen as a parody from the inside.

[Jehanne]

Allegorical religion is an enabler for fundamentalist religion.

[Fake Messiah]

I guess you would have to be more descriptive of what allegorical religion is. I don't think that anyone thinks that his religious views are allegorical or that he believes in allegory.

[Jehanne]

I guess you would have to be more descriptive of what allegorical religion is. I don't think that anyone thinks that his religious views are allegorical or that he believes in allegory.

As an ex-Catholic, I can speak to this. In liberal Catholicism, the adherents start with their conclusion and then formulate their theology around that; in the process, they cherry pick from the Bible to support their a prior vision. You want Jesus to be an ethical teacher? No problem; there are Bible versus to support that. Social activist? Ditto. Marxist? Sure. Capitalist, homosexual, revolutionary, etc.; the list goes on and on.

Again, stirring the bullshit clockwise versus counterclockwise but with various additives and flavors mixed in to make it more palatable to some but not to others.