Fundamentalist vs Modernist

As society advances, we gain a deeper understanding of the true nature of our world. In the same time, the new understanding often contradicts the old, traditional Christian teachings, and conflicts arise. One of the biggest challenges to the Christian beliefs is the work of Charles Darwin, who, in his book origin of species, established human beings as species that emerged over millions of years through a process of evolution, rather than suddenly by creationism that humans are created by and in the image of God.

Challenged by the new scientific discoveries such as evolution, religious modernist, often referred to as the liberals, want to change traditional Christian beliefs to accommodate these new scientific discoveries, seeing their religion based on truths, instead of solely the bible. Many of the modernist interpreted natural selection as an instrument of God's design. As the cleric Charles Kingsley said "Just as noble a conception of Deity"

On the other side, stood the religious fundamentalist, who believe that the Christian religion should base solely on the biblical interpretation, believing in every word in the bible literally.

Conflicts and debates between modernist and fundamentalist spread through a number of levels and involve a number of topics. In the religious level, there is debate between whether the bible is written by a single author or constructed by multiple authors, and about the contradictory biblical passages within the bible itself, which all lead to doubts about the historical accuracy of the biblical text and about biblical authority.

One of the instances of the conflict between modernist and fundamentalist is the The Scopes Trial, where teacher John Scopes was put to trial for teaching evolution in a public school in Dayton, Tennessee. The trial attracted huge attention for its image as a battleground between fundamentalism and modernism. Although the trial ends with John Scopes being declared guilty, the trial, especially when Clarence Darrow examine William Jennings Bryan, revealed the contradictions within the bible and severely attacked fundamentalism. Afterwards, fundamentalism will never be able to challenge modernism outright again.

After its influence vaned, fundamentalism nonetheless remained. After the Scopes Trial, many fundamentalists break away to form their own churches. In the modern days, the fundamentalists' denunciation of modernist theology and their censure of church-related institutions of higher learning often led them to reject contemporary education.

Fundamentalism's influence remained. The Baptist Bible Fellowship, formed in 1950, is the largest recognized autonomous branch of the Christian church that believe in fundamentalism. Jerry Falwell emerged as the movement's leading spokesperson in the 1970s. The group continued their defense of creationism, word by word. They attempt to either ban the teaching of evolution or  require  the teaching of Genesis wherever evolution is taught. Some of the fundamentalist, known as the creationist, also advocated the teachings of a doctrine known as "intelligent design", basically an argument on the existence of god.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christian-fundamentalism
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markdriscoll/2016/03/religious-views-of-humanity/
https://www.biography.com/people/charles-darwin-9266433
http://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2007/october/143-52.0.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin#Publication_of_the_theory_of_natural_selection
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalist-Modernist_Controversy#The_Scopes_Trial_.281925.29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial