Fundamentalists are panicked by the apparent disintegration of the family, the disappearance of certainty and the decay of morality. Fear leads them to ask, if we cannot trust the Bible, what can we trust?

Hardin frames fundamentalism less as a set of doctrines than as a psychological and social reaction to perceived disorder. The “disintegration of the family,” “disappearance of certainty,” and “decay of morality” are presented as symptoms of modernity that produce anxiety; in that anxiety, the Bible becomes a stabilizing authority. The closing question—“if we cannot trust the Bible, what can we trust?”—captures a demand for epistemic security: a need for an unquestionable foundation when other institutions and norms feel unreliable. The quote thus critiques how fear can drive people toward absolutism and away from pluralism, inquiry, or provisional forms of knowledge.