Quote Originally Posted by Watchman
The trouble is, True Believers always think *they* know the Truth... And not just any old truth, but The Truth. You know, the fundamental one.

Which naturally tends to make them rather unsympathetic to alternative explanations.
Well, there's one more link required to connect fundamentalism to violence. I don't think there's anything wrong with thinking that your beliefs are correct - everyone has to hold to this idea somewhat; otherwise we would never act on anything.

To go from strong convictions to violence, you also have to believe that it's your responsibility to force everyone to think as you do (not just convince them of what you consider true). You need a willful blindness to the viewpoints of other people; you can't think about their well-being at all.

Basically, in order to commit violence in the name of "the truth," you have to pick a narrow few "truths" to focus on and ignore all the rest.