] New Age movements attempt to revive -- or create anew
] --pre-Enlightenment ideas about magic, alchemy, ghosts,
] and whatever else practitioners can glean from a record
] for the most part expunged by institutional Christianity.
]
] Christian fundamentalism, meanwhile, is the child of the
] Enlightenment, a functionalist view of faith that%u2019s
] metaphorically %u201Cscientific.%u201D It's scripture as
] read by a cranky engineer who just wants to know how God
] works. The Bible, for a fundamentalist, isn%u2019t
] powerful literature demanding our ever-changing
] discernment; it%u2019s an instruction manual. And
] fundamentalists think that's a good thing.

From Gibson blog