AP is correct here. What we know as the Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest surviving relic of the holy texts that the modern faiths are built upon. What fundamentalists (of all faiths) bitterly reject is the truth that ALL of these faiths evolved and came from similar streams of thought down through the ages.


I took a Comparative Religions course in college decades ago, and it was one of the most enlightening things I ever experienced. I wonder if in today's climate such a free-wheeling climate of inquiry could exist as that professor allowed. It was absolutely amazing to see the comparable edicts in faith after faith ... with even the wording of the texts eerily similar in many areas.


To my way of thinking, fundamentalism is just another form of closed-mindedness, a refusal to look behind or beneath the surface appearance of things. A shallow point of view, in other words. I really appreciate the spirit of openness that Wine has shown in opening this thread - but, then again, I AM a Universal Unitarian!