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There are would-be murderers all round the world who want to kill you and me and themselves because they’re motivated by what they think is the highest ideal ... The elephant in the room: an elephant called Religion. The suicide bomber is convinced that in killing for his God, he will be fast-tracked to a special martyr’s heaven. Richard Dawkins, The Root of All Evil? The God Delusion, Channel 4 2006
Fundamentalist Christianity is on the rise among the electorate of the world’s only superpower, right up to and including the president ... Fundamentalist American Christianity is attacking science, but what is it offering instead? A mirror-image of Islamic extremism: an American Taliban. ibid.
How do we explain the mysteries of life? Science has steadily overturned old religious myths about how all this came to be. Yet those who adhere to Judaism, Christianity or Islam still prefer to ignore reason, and have faith in their for ever unprovable omniscient creator. I had thought Science was rolling back religious belief but I was wrong. Far from being beaten, militant faith is on the march all across the world with terrifying consequences. As a scientist I am increasingly worried about how Faith is undermining Science; it’s something we must resist. Richard Dawkins, The Root of All Evil? The Virus of Faith
It doesn’t hurt my feeling when I get vilified by fundamentalist religious people. I’ve actually made comedy out of it. I’ve made light of that. Richard Dawkins
Fundamentalists know they are right because they have read the truth in a holy book and they know, in advance, that nothing will budge them from their belief. The truth of the holy book is an axiom, not the end product of a process of reasoning. Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion p282
Fundamentalist religion is hell-bent on ruining the scientific education of countless thousands of innocent, well-meaning, eager young minds. ibid. p286
Religious moderation ... gives cover to fundamentalism. Sam Harris, New York Society for Ethical Culture lecture 2005
The mindset of a fundamentalist is a binary brain: it’s either right or wrong, good or evil, black or white, yes or no. Dan Barker, lecture 2001, ‘Losing Faith in Faith’
So this is where all the vapid talk about the ‘soul’ of the universe is actually headed. Once the hard-won principles of reason and science have been discredited, the world will not pass into the hands of credulous herbivores who keep crystals by their sides and swoon over the poems of Khalil Gibran. The ‘vacuum’ will be invaded instead by determined fundamentalists of every stripe who already know the truth by means of revelation and who actually seek real and serious power in the here and now. One thinks of the painstaking, cloud-dispelling labour of British scientists from Isaac Newton to Joseph Priestley to Charles Darwin to Ernest Rutherford to Alan Turing and Francis Crick, much of it built upon the shoulders of Galileo and Copernicus, only to see it casually slandered by a moral and intellectual weakling from the usurping House of Hanover. An awful embarrassment awaits the British if they do not declare for a republic based on verifiable laws and principles, both political and scientific. Christopher Hitchens
How dismal it is to see present day Americans yearning for the very orthodoxy that their country was founded to escape. Christopher Hitchens
Although the far territory of the extreme can exert an intoxicating pull on susceptible individuals of all bents, extremism seems to be especially prevalent among those inclined by temperament or upbringing toward religious pursuits. Faith is the very antithesis of reason, injudiciousness a crucial component of spiritual devotion. And when religious fanaticism supplants ratiocination, all bets are suddenly off. Jon Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
Misuse of reason might yet return the world to pre-technological night; plenty of religious zealots hunger for just such a result, and are happy to use the latest technology to effect it. A C Grayling, The Heart of Things: Applying Philosophy to the 21st Century
The fundamentalists deny that evolution has taken place; they deny that the earth and the universe as a whole are more than a few thousand years old, and so on. There is ample scientific evidence that the fundamentalists are wrong in these matters, and that their notions of cosmogony have about as much basis in fact as the Tooth Fairy has. Isaac Asimov, cited James A Haught, ‘2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People with the Courage to Doubt’, 1996
Fundamentalists long for the return of a more moral America, an America that may never have been. All around them they see what they perceive as declining morality and spirituality. They reason that if humans share ancestry with the other animals, we have no reason to behave as anything other than animals. This view neglects the fact that humans are the only known animals with the ability to contemplate the consequences of their own actions. It also fails to recognize that there is a great deal of good in the world, the nightly news notwithstanding. Crime existed long before the theory of evolution, even before the writing of the Bible, and biologists do not like crime any more than the creationists do. Evolutionary theory is not a license to run amok, and neither is a belief in the literal interpretation of the Bible a guarantor of moral behaviour. Tim Berra, Evolution and the Myth of Creationism
For the last twelve years with Reagan and Bush we have had fundamentalist Christians in the White House. Fundamentalist Christians who believe the Bible is the exact word of God including that wacky fire and brimstone Revelations ending – have had their finger on the fucking button for twelve years. Tell me when, Lord. Tell me when. Bill Hicks, Revelations, Dominion Theatre London
Fundamentalist Christianity – fascinating. These people actually believe the world is 12,000 years old ... I got one word to ask you, one word question, ready? Dinosaurs. ibid.
He says, Dinosaur fossils? God put those here to test our faith ... I think God put you here to test my faith, dude. ibid.
The greatest crime in fundamentalist Christianity is to think. The God Who Wasn’t There, 2005
They called themselves the Fundamentalists. God in America: A New Light, PBS 2010
Fundamentalists launched a nationwide campaign to ban the teaching of evolution in America’s schools. ibid.
John Scope was found guilty. Teaching evolution remained illegal in Tennessee and several other states. ibid.
The Rapture is a very important feature of fundamentalist thinking. It doesn’t have anything to do with the Book of Revelation. Professor Catherine Keller, Drew University
I’m sick and tired of hearing about all the radicals and the perverts and the liberals and the leftists and the communists coming out of the closets – it’s time for guns, people, to come out of the closets, out of the churches and change America. We must do it. James Robison, fundamentalist preacher
Years ago I started defining fundamentalism as ‘No fun, too much damn, and not enough mental’. Bart Ehrman
The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. Bertrand Russell
I don’t think that fundamentalism has anything to do with Jesus Christ. They call themselves Christians, but if that’s Christian, count me out. Fundamentalism is built on fear and greed. They’re telling you to give them your money otherwise you’re going to hell. Matthew Fox
I enjoy being Jewish, but I’m an atheist ... I hate fundamentalism in all its forms – Jews, Catholics, Baptists. I think they are all potty and capable of destroying the world. Warren Mitchell
You will notice that in all disputes between Christians since the birth of the Church, Rome has always favoured the doctrine which most completely subjugated the human mind and annihilated reason. Voltaire
The main doctrine of a fanatic’s creed is that his enemies are the enemies of God. Andrew White
Staying unsaved was no easy business in Dallas. Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends: Fundamentalist Christianity
Every fundamentalist movement that I’ve studied ... is rooted in a deep fear, a profound terror of annihilation. Karen Armstrong
Every fundamentalist movement I’ve studied in Judaism, Christianity and Islam is convinced at some gut, visceral level that secular liberal society wants to wipe out religion. Karen Armstrong
It’s Religion’s very own F-word. Just who are the Fundamentalists? Mark Dowd, The Fundamentalists
Fundamentalism is a twentieth century phenomenon. ibid.