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In some countries, religious extremism has stepped into the power vacuums left by fall of dictatorships and the end of the Cold War, Tutu said.
“That is when fundamentalisms arise, because people then are deeply distressed by complexity,” he said. “They look for simplistic answers.” ~ Desmond Tutu Warns Against Fundamentalism
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I don’t think many people I associate with would be strictly be called “fundamentalist”. I’m sure they would detest the term … I would, who likes to be labeled. But I believe many people around me are “distressed by complexity” and the temptation for us “look for simplistic answers” is ever before us.
If one just tries to “wrestle” with life’s complexity, some look at us strangely with a “why-so-hard” glare. I know there are times we should take things easy, but even then the complexities don’t vanish into thin air.
The reality is these simplistic answers won’t help us, in fact the often hurt us in the long term. Living life with “despair” and no answers is not going to work too. That’s why it can be so painful just trying to be human … or a “pretty good person” (a phrase I got from Lewis Smedes), and ironically there’s so much pleasure as well when we find some answers and are at least on the journey of discovery.