What Is Darwinian Fundamentalism?

In its broadest meaning, Darwinian Fundamentalism refers to any expression or support of macroevolutionary theory that evinces characteristics of religious fundamentalism, such as narrow-mindedness, intolerance, anti-intellectualism, obscurantism, or dogmatism.

Stephen Jay Gould, a prominent proponent of evolution, used the term “Darwinian Fundamentalism” before me, and a post about his usage, with link, is here. The definition above is how the term is used on this blog, but this would include the Gould sense.

A discussion of the meaning of the word "fundamentalism" can be found here.

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Some of the more common examples of Darwinian Fundamentalism are:

* Acceptance of and devotion to macroevolutionary theory on the basis of a rigid, a priori philosophical commitment to Materialism, and not on the basis of scientific evidence. A good example this philosophical perspective can be found here, and a longer discussion here.

* Intolerance of people who question macroevolutionary theory, and support for public policy that involves teaching only the evidence that supports it and banning any scientific evidence that would tend to disprove it. This also includes those who assert that there is no scientific evidence that would tend to disprove any aspect of macroevolutionary theory. Examples of this can be found here and here.

* Anti-intellectualism and obscurantism reflected in misrepresenting the scientific evidence relevant to macroevolutionary theory, misrepresenting the position of those who challenge any aspect of macroevolutionary theory, questioning their motives or focusing on their religious beliefs as opposed to attempting to refute their arguments on the merits. This has its most common expression in ad hominem arguments and straw man arguments. Examples of this are simply everywhere. One example, discussed in a previous post, is a drop in the ocean.