alwmjohnson
New member
What do you think of the concept of Fideism? For me, fideists are those religious addicts who have beliefs not based on reason or logic. For me, fideism puts reasoning to sleep. It really amounts to an abdication of the working brain’s critical thinking skills of analysis and synthesis. Fideism is concrete reactive thinking and a mechanical interaction with life. Schopenhauer said, “faith and knowledge are related as the scales of a balance; when one goes up, the other goes down.” (19th Cent) Fideism is an absolute certainty of having the truth. Absolute faith is dangerous because it justifies religious extremists to do deplorable things ---> eg. Christian crusades or Islamic jihadism. Fideism condones religious atrocities of all kinds. Pascal said, “men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious convictions.” (1669) For Sigmund Freud, “when a man has brought himself to accept uncritically all the absurdities that religious doctrines put before him and even to overlook the contradictions between them, we need not be greatly surprised at the weakness of his intellect.” Fideism involves a piety (devotion) to religious duties no matter the consequences. Fideists support religious dogma that has whipped them into a frenzy of superiority as the “chosen ones.” Fideism includes those who are "born again," and have unfortunately become locked into a restrictive and repressive fundamentalist dogma. Those claiming to be born again are stuck at best at concrete operational thinking that comes from a fear of punishment and eternal damnation.