Bob E.> Actually, if you argue with fundamentalists fairly closely, 
> sticking to internal questions about how they analyse texts (as 
> opposed to constantly raising external questions as to whether the 
> texts are true), you will discover that they do not really accept 
> the words they read in the Bible.  In fact, they merely use the 
> Bible as a kind of meaningless incantation to which they attach 
> their personal meanings and philosophies.  ... 
OTOH: Fundamentalist Philosophy is an oxymoron.  As Bob noted, the 
fact is that they don't think carefully about what they believe; I 
too have noted a highly polished sophistry in that when a response 
is not available, new issues are woven into the thread. 
 
In the Dead Sea scrolls, I see the same sort of self-righteous and 
invective rhetoric aimed at those outside the believer group.  The 
charges of depravity and coming damnation are never gone into with 
any detail, nor is any disagreement with the conventional opinions 
tolerated, even though those opinions aren't analyzed carefully. 
 
Plato credits Socrates for making clear, how important it is to be 
careful in selecting opinions, to choose only those which are easy 
to defend, and disregard the rest, as taking up too much room in a 
small mind- leaving inadequate space for rolling over a worthwhile 
concept to reveal hidden attributes. 
 
As a young Christian, I was lead to believe that philosophers like 
Plato and Aristotle were convoluted, complex, and incomprehensible 
to all but the intellectual elite, whereas the divine dogma was so 
simple a child could understand it.  But, as they say, the Devil's 
in the details, and wars, witchhunts, and heresy trials have arose 
throughout history on that account. 
 
I daresay the flamethrowers are yet another example of the same in 
the echos.  I challenge any of them to read Plato before trying to 
argue philosohpy.  I would further offer, that it's fundamentalism 
that is complex and incomprehensible, whereas I was happy to find, 
among other things, that Socrates speaks in plain language about a 
lotta plain things, revealing a lotta plain truth. 
 
By and large, I agree with Rev, to ignore the flamethrowers; yet I 
do skim thru their posts from time to time, and even here, I see a 
novel or worthwhile idea on occasion.  Here, I think I can perform 
a service by responding to *that point*, respond to their rational 
side, and ignore the irrational.  Shrinks would tell you that they 
act that way for the sake of attention, and by ignoring flames, we 
can encourage what real rational power they may have, while at the 
same damp their fires of passion.  It may do some small good. 
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