The Real Problem with being Any Kind of Fundamentalist

Being a Fundamentalist anything can be a problem in a quickly changing world like this one. At the very least it likely is going to shorten your life. My daughter today gave me an Atheistic Fundamentalist reaction to something and my wife and I jumped on her about that. We said, "Being a Fundamentalist Atheist is just as bad as being a fundamentalist of any religion or being a fundamentalist Scientist Atheist. You have to respect other people's points of view. If you don't being a fundamentalist (anything) tends to be a cause for wars, conflicts, deaths and mayhem around the world.

One needs to be open to the world enough to be able to change one's point of view. We all are not fully developed even if we are 100 years old. We still have more to learn about life in the universe. So, closing your mind if you are 10, 15, 20 or any age and saying something like, "If you don't believe in what I believe in I hate you and furthermore I may have to kill you one day" isn't useful to you or to the world. So, being close minded in general and not open to new ideas like I said likely is going to shorten your life considerably (especially if you live in coastal California where almost anything can happen on any given day).

What I have noticed is people who are fundamentalist have no reason especially if they are fundamentalist religious. They are scary for people to be around them if they don't have exactly the same point of view.

However, people who are scientists and have an ego about their knowledge often have no center or basis or humanity. They have no heart. I have found people need both reason and compassion to be well rounded so they don't just kill themselves or others along the way. So, balance seems to be important.

My father was quite a religious zealot and though I was inspired by him he also scared me in some ways. So, Lam Rim that Buddha found and called the Middle path works for me. And also I like the Greek saying, "Everything in moderation." I find that people who get too extreme about anything tend to die young and sometimes go crazy too. So, I try to find balance in everything in life because that seems to lead to a compassionate long life for as many people as possible including my family and me.