I can really resonate with smallpiper and Amos. Organized belief systems, like all organized systems, tend to fall victim to entropy. When adherents to any belief system lose the clarity of the original, central idea of their chosen belief system, they tend to distort the system into a simple but rigid set of absolutes that becomes the basis for some type of fundamentalism.

Many sorts of “fundamentalism” seem to be attracting large numbers of followers these days. But in every case, the fundamentalists who claim unbending devotion to their chosen faith—Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Communism, Capitalism, Nationalism, Patriotism, Militarism—have, in fact, perverted the central idea that made their chosen “faith” attractive and useful in the first place.

Fundamentalism of any sort ceases to be a supportive system that helps to guide our personal thoughts and actions, fundamentalism is a controlling system that helps us dominate, directly or passivly, those who do not share our point of view.

I'm sorry, Don, that your friend, Andy, has fallen victim to fundamentalism. There may be sound and rational reasons to support war but I don't think God's Will is among them.

      - Mark