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But in these questions of bafflement, these nonbelievers miss something central to the fundamentalist experience. That central fact is that, from the point of view of the fundamentalist, this experience, far from being suffocating or encumbering, is a form of complete liberation. The extreme manifestations of observance eminate from a deeper, calmer place where faith frees the troubled mind from the burden of existential fear and everyday trembling. We have a fundamental choice, the fundamentalist says. We can live in a constant state of doubt, facing what is unknown and unknowable with our weak, empirical, unreliable skills; or we can embrace a total explanation that liberates the human person from the ordeal of flawed consciousness into the joy of salvation and stable happiness.
Fundamentalism succeeds, in other words, because it elevates and comforts. It provides a sense of meaning and direction to the lost in a disorienting world. It does this by taking you into another world, immune to the corruption and compromises of this one. The rigid recourse to texts embraced as literal truth, the injunction to follow the commandments of God before anything else, the subjugation of reason and judgment and even conscience to the dictates of dogma: these can be exhilarating and transformative experiences. They have led human beings to perform extraordinary acts of benevolence; and we would be foolish either to condescend or to underestimate their appeal…
– Sullivan, A Conservative Soul
