The Environmentalist Cult
The so called green movement is built on religious beliefs posing as science
In sociology a cult is a small religious group whose beliefs fall outside the bounds of recognized religious organization.
The environmentalist movement is, then, a cult.
The environmentalist movement is a cult because it has all the traditional elements of an organized religion without the vast scale.
Like other religions it features a deity -- i.e. mother nature.
It also has a set of beliefs about the end times -- namely that we’re headed for an environmental apocalypse unless we adopt green energy policies.
And to it appeals to the sacred like all other religions -- for nature worshippers trees and other plants are held in the highest esteem even above humans.
Clearly then the environmentalist movement is a cult.
And the problem with this cult is that its leaders’ own self-deceptions -- or intentional ignorance -- has people believing that the basis of environmentalism is the science and not religion.
This ideological sleight of hand has had profound implications for both science and religion.
In science the politics of climate change is passing for real science.
In religion, so called atheists are actually worshiping trees.
And in both cases science and religion have been made worse off because of these mistaken beliefs.
Science has been so politicized that it’s difficult to trust scientists to do anything but veil their political beliefs behind fake science.
Religion has been hurt by the dishonest assumption that many are skeptical atheists when instead many are dogmatic environmentalists.
Honesty in both domains would do much to improve the cultural conversation about both religion and science.
If scientists, for example, were honest about how their religious beliefs were informing their climate science we might reach better conclusions about what to do to protect the environment.
Likewise in religion we might have better conversations about faith and whom and what we should worship if more honestly acknowledged that they are religious and that they do worship particularly things like trees.
Until we’re ready for such candid conversations, however, we’ll be stuck with second rate science and religion. And no amount praise to mother nature will change that fact.