Public Forum On World Religions

I just started an Indic religions course and our first reading assignment was "How to think about religions". It was all generally good stuff to go by for how to study religions that you don't necessarily agree with. What I want to focus on here though, are these definitions:

"A fundamentalist sees his or her own religious tradition as uniquely true and perhaps as divinely inspired. For a fundamentalist, the claims of his or her own tradition trump all other truth claims. Facts will be interpreted so as to support the claims of the tradition. Other religious traditions are typically rejected as false, and one’s own tradition is seen as the only path to salvation (however that may be understood). Christians who believe that every word of the Bible is literally true and Muslims who believe the same thing about the Qur’an are fundamentalists.

A skeptic tends to reject all religious claims. Skeptics, or critics of religion, will point to the many wars and other acts of violence that have been committed throughout history in the name of religion to argue that religion generally does more harm than good. Science will generally be viewed as the only reliable guide to knowledge, and all claims that are not supported by scientific observation and logical argument will be rejected. Skeptics do not believe in a divine being, usually being either atheists (those who believe that God does not exist) or agnostics (those who argue that we do not yet know if God exists).

Those who hold a constructive view of religion tend to be, like fundamentalists, religious people–believing and practicing members of religious communities. But, like skeptics, they also place a high value on scientific observation and logical argument as important sources of knowledge. Like skeptics, they also acknowledge that religion has been one of the great sources of violence and suffering in human history. But unlike skeptics, they do not hold a uniformly negative view of religion. Instead, they seek to reform their religion and to engage in dialogue with science and with other religions in order to move closer to the truth. Such people are religious, but also see religion as imperfect."

If you've read this far, congratulations. I'd like to hear what you consider yourself to be and if you think any of the three are made to sound like "bad" things and also if you think that any of the three are in fact "bad" things. I realize this is probably the most complicated question I've asked so I'll be amazed if I get many good responses."

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