Q&A: Fundamentalism
Fundamentalism
Question
The Rabbi explained that in a person’s Western maturation, if he gives up the first assumption then he is a fundamentalist, and if he gives up the second assumption then he is a synthetic mature person, for whom claims about the world, even if they are not fully proven by logical or empirical tools, are nevertheless acceptable through the use of the mind’s eye / intuition.
The Rabbi claims that there are roughly 6 acceptable arguments for the existence of God, and one of them is intuition, or what some call simple faith.
Assuming that this is indeed the case:
Take, for example, a newly religious person who read a book about the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and started talking to God and practicing hitbodedut every day for an hour, and following all kinds of other pieces of advice like that, and even flew to Uman for Rosh Hashanah.
How can he determine whether he is a fundamentalist who gives validity to non-logical tools for accepting claims, or whether his faith is an intuition, which is an acceptable claim?
And in fact, most believers I know do not believe on the basis of acceptable arguments, but rather either they are fundamentalists or they have intuition (which is acceptable).
So how can one determine what a person is?
Thanks in advance, and happy holidays
Answer
You don’t need to determine anything. It’s not your business to judge others. Form your own position, and that’s it.
I didn’t mean to judge at all, only to understand what the difference is between the two.
Maybe the difference is that the fundamentalist does not subject his claims to the test of refutation, whereas the intuitive believer does?