AUDIO  EXCERPT 1       AUDIO  EXCERPT 2 

"There are two things that you will never hear from the lips of the Christian fundamentalist. The first is an admission that the Holy Bible contains teachings that are untrue. The second is an admission that the Holy Bible contains teachings that are immoral. For the Christian fundamentalist, such admissions are simply not an option. This is the fundamentalist's fatal flaw." This is the premise of Michael Scott Earl's latest offering, The Fundamentalist's Fatal Flaw. To anyone who reads the Holy Bible with even an ounce of objectivity it is clear that the book is a repository of ancient mistakes. It teaches the most absurd and shockingly immoral things imaginable. World-wide floods, talking animals, barbaric stonings, slavery, genocide, demon possession, eternal lakes of fire. Friends, these are not mysteries. These are mistakes!

Reasonable people of all ages have progressed due in large part to their willingness to abandon the mistakes of the past. This is how we evolve, intellectually and morally. But to evolve in this way we must be willing to change - change our minds. This is what the fundamentalist refuses to do. He refuses to change his mind. He has anchored his mind to a belief that the Bible is a true and moral book, and he clings to that belief no matter how much contrary evidence the universe throws in his path. A refusal to change one's mind at any cost is a refusal to think, and a mind that does not think is dead just as a body that does not breathe is dead. Moreover, a mind that refuses to change is a mind that cannot evolve. And a mind that refuses to evolve is, in Earl's words, "like the fossil of some long-extinct reptile." A fatal flaw indeed.

In addition to pointing out the error of the fundamentalist, Earl shares what he believes is a general model for scientific and moral advance. Briefly, the model requires us to: 1) Choose a standard upon which our understanding is to be based, 2) Identify the distinct features of that standard with as much precision as possible, and 3) Formulate beliefs that are consistent with that well-defined standard. In the most general sense the model requires that our beliefs conform to our standard, whether that standard be a growing body of scientifically gathered evidence or some well-defined value. In other words, our beliefs should change in response to our standard. The fundamentalist has this process almost completely backwards. He begins with a belief (that his Bible is true and moral) and refuses to let go of that belief in spite of an ever-growing mountain of evidence at odds with that belief! The lengths to which the fundamentalist will go to "defend" that belief are absurd to the point of amusing.

The Fundamentalist's Fatal Flaw is meticulously documented, fearlessly argued, and delivered with Earl's usual caustic wit. A must have for any serious freethinker's library.