ADG        I believe that I am a fundamentalist

Fundamentalism is looked on as weird sort of religious belief, but I believe that is wrong.  Whether the erroneous meaning has come from the other side of the  Atlantic, like "absolutely", "fabulous" et cetera; taking on a meaning that bears little resemblance to its original one, I am not sure.  But a fundamentalist must be one who starts his reasoning from a fundamental principle.  And if, again like me, you believe in the scientific principle, then to be a fundamentalist must mean that you view the world in a way that starts off with a fundamental belief that is expanded using scientific principles.  I don't think I have a fundamental belief, except in what I see and hear with my own two senses.

If someone talks of God, I listen to their thesis and then logically make deductions from their statements.  This is where I part company from most religious beliefs.  They are simply not credible when examined in detail.  In other words, they contradict themselves. There is no illogic to say that there is a God, and that we are all part of HIS empire.  But the belief stats to fall apart when one listens to what believers go on to say.  They say "He is Almighty".  But as soon as one starts to consider what that means, one runs into trouble.  If He is Almighty, he must be able to conjure up something that he is unable to do.  If he can, he is not almighty, if he cannot, he is not almighty either.  What this means is that the term "almighty" is a meaningless word.  The human mind cannot handle infinities.  Mathematicians. have a notation for putting on paper a notion that they cannot handle, but infinity is outside of human ability to understand   We are good at inventing paradoxes; we invent them all the time.  Just look at Quantum Theory.

If God is that entity that theists say He is, we should truly be in awe of Him.  But if one looks around the universe, He has an enormous task on his hands.  I suppose it is theoretically possible that He puts stars in their place and is also interested in us, but when one looks a little closer to home, it suggests that we humans are not very high on his agenda.  For example. why did He slay those thousands of people in the Asian tsunami.  I don't try to answer the question, I just ask it of the religionists who purport to have answers that I do not have.  People pray to God to do things for them; isn't that an enormous cheek.  You really believe that the Power that made the Universe is going to change his mind for you?

Now I cannot prove that there is no God, I simply say that He has not shown himself to me yet.  But IF there is a God, it is reasonable to believe that we do not feature very high on His list of priorities.

From time to time I meet a Jehovah's Witness at the front door.  They invariably have a Bible in their hand and start to quote from it.  I immediately stop them and say::
"Why do you choose that book from among the half a dozen or so that exist around the world?"

The last pair (and they always come in pairs; is that so there is a witness should a householder get violent for being interrupted  in something much more important) started to read out from the copy he had in his hand.  Again I stopped him with
"You can't use that book to justify that book.  You have to back to a deeper principle in order to give your book any credence"
But to give this one his due, he knew when he was beaten and simply walked off without a word.  I didn't voice it, but my thought was "Pig".  He  really lowered himself in my opinion.