They reject modern Protestant and Catholic scholarship about the origins of the Bible. Rather than trying to understand the historical situation in which the books of the Bible were written and the literary styles they employ, fundamentalists believe that their English translations of the Bible must be understood literally, that is, the surface meaning must be accepted as true, word for word. Unlike Catholics, many fundamentalists believe that the Bible is meant by God to faithfully teach not only the way to salvation, but science and history as well. Unlike Catholics, many believe, for instance, that the Bible teaches that God created the universe in literally seven days, and that evolution is Biblically impossible, no matter what modern science may say. Fundamentalists are afraid to acknowledge the legitimate place of our God-given gift of reason and science in studying and interpreting the Bible correctly.
Fundamentalists claim to interpret the whole Bible literally.
In reality they do not. While rejecting the Church's right to do this, each group takes it upon itself to decide what is literally true in the Bible and what is not. There are many different fundamentalist groups, and they disagree among themselves as to what the Bible teaches. While they all say that the Bible is to be followed exactly, each group decides which verses to follow exactly. Theirs is an enthusiastically literal, but very selective, reading of the Bible.