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Global Warming as Religion and not Science
It was Michael Crichton who first prominently identified environmentalism as
a religion. That was in a speech in 2003, but the world has moved on apace
since then and adherents of the creed now have a firm grip on the world at
large.
Global Warming has become the core belief in a new eco-theology. The term is
used as shorthand for anthropogenic (or man made) global warming. It is
closely related to other modern belief systems, such as political
correctness, chemophobia and various other forms of scaremongering, but it
represents the vanguard in the assault on scientific man.
The activists now prefer to call it "climate change". This gives them two
advantages:
1. It allows them to seize as "evidence" the inevitable occurrences of
unusually cold weather as well as warm ones.
2. The climate is always changing, so they must be right.
Only the relatively elderly can remember the cynical haste with which the
scaremongers dropped the "coming ice age" and embraced exactly the opposite
prediction, but aimed at the same culprit - industry. This was in Britain,
which was the cradle of the new belief and was a response to the derision
resulting from the searing summer of 1976. The father of the new religion
was Sir Crispin Tickell, and because he had the ear of Prime Minister,
Margaret Thatcher, who was engaged in a battle with the coal miners and the
oil sheiks, it was introduced into international politics with the authority
of the only major political leader holding a qualification in science. The
introduction was timely yet ironic since, in the wake of the world's
political upheavals, a powerful new grouping of left-wing interests was
coalescing around environmental issues. The result was a new form of godless
religion. The global warming cult has the characteristics of religion and
not science for the following reasons.
Faith and scepticism
Faith is a belief held without evidence. The scientific method, a loose
collection of procedures of great variety, is based on precisely the
opposite concept, as famously declared by Thomas Henry Huxley:
The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge
authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind
faith the one unpardonable sin.
Huxley was one of a long tradition of British sceptical philosophers. From
the Bacons, through the likes of Locke, Hume and Russell, to the magnificent
climax of Popper's statement of the principle of falsifiability, the
scientific method was painfully established, only to be abandoned in a few
short decades. It is one of the great ironies of modern history that the
nation that was the cradle of the scientific method came to lead the process
of its abandonment. The great difference, then, is that religion demands
belief, while science requires disbelief. There is a great variety faiths.
Atheism is just as much a faith as theism. There is no evidence either way.
There is no fundamental clash between faith and science - they do not
intersect. The difficulties arise, however, when one pretends to be the
other.
The Royal Society, as a major part of the flowering of the tradition, was
founded on the basis of scepticism. Its motto "On the word of no one" was a
stout affirmation. Now suddenly, following their successful coup, the Greens
have changed this motto of centuries to one that manages to be both banal
and sinister - "Respect the facts." When people start talking about "the
facts" it is time to start looking for the fictions. Real science does not
talk about facts; it talks about observations, which might turn out to be
inaccurate or even irrelevant.
The global warmers like to use the name of science, but they do not like its
methods. They promote slogans such a "The science is settled" when real
scientists know that science is never settled. They were not, however,
always so wise. In 1900, for example, the great Lord Kelvin famously stated,
"There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is
more and more precise measurement." Within a few years classical physics was
shattered by Einstein and his contemporaries. Since then, in science, the
debate is never closed.
The world might (or might not) have warmed by a fraction of a degree. This
might (or might not) be all (or in part) due to the activities of mankind.
It all depends on the quality of observations and the validity of various
hypotheses. Science is at ease with this situation. It accepts various
theories, such as gravitation or evolution, as the least bad available and
of the most practical use, but it does not believe. Religion is different.
Sin and absolution
It is in the nature of religion to be authoritarian and proscriptive.
Essential to this is the concept of sin - a transgression in thought or deed
of theological principles.
Original sin in the older religions derived from one of the founts of life
on earth - sex. The new religion goes even further back to the very basis of
all life - carbon. Perhaps the fundamental human fear is fear of life
itself. The amazing propensity of carbon to form compounds of unlimited
complexity made the existence of life possible, while its dioxide is the
primary foodstuff, the very start of the food chain. Every item nutriment
you consume started out as atmospheric carbon dioxide. It is therefore the
ideal candidate for original sin, since no one can escape dependence on it.
This manna that gave us life is now regularly branded in media headlines as
"pollution" and "toxic": surely one of the most perverse dysphemisms in the
history of language.
The corrective to sin in religion is absolution, and the power of most
religions comes from their claim to have the monopoly on absolution. So it
is with the new godless religion. Furthermore, it is in the nature of
religion to create false markets. In the time of Chaucer the Pardoner sold
papal indulgences, which freed the prosperous from the consequences of sin.
Likewise, the new pardoners sell carbon offsets. As in so much of both
ancient and modern society these activities divert effort from wealth
creation and so act as a drag on the economy. They also grant to the rich a
comfort that is not available to the poor - a sure road to success.
Proselytes and evangelists
Most religions seek to grow by means of proselytism. Science does not seek
or need converts. It teaches those that are willing to learn, but it does
not impose itself on those who are indifferent. Religions (at least those
that are successful) have a different imperative. A growing cohort of
believers reinforces the beliefs of existing adherents and participating in
the quest for converts helps assuage the inevitable doubts they might
harbour. Successful religions are structured to encompass this expansionary
mechanism. Those who can recruit others to the cause are therefore held in
high regard.
Demagogues and hypocrites
Demagoguery is also, therefore, a feature of religion. Some people have the
capacity to hold the masses in their thrall. It is a mysterious art, as
their skills of oratory do not often stand up to any sort of critical
examination. They are idols of the moment, who often turn out to have feet
of clay, as so frequently seems to happen with charismatic TV preachers.
One of the most notorious demagogues of the godless religion is Al Gore. He
is certainly not great orator, but he makes up for it with chutzpah. His
disregard for truth is exemplified by his characteristic and ubiquitous pose
in front of a satellite photograph of hurricane Katrina. Even some of the
most vehement climate "scientists" refrain from connecting that particular
isolated and monstrously tragic event with global warming. Likewise his Old
Testament style prophecies of further disasters, such as floods due to a
rise in sea level, greatly exceed the more modest claims of the
"professionals". As in the overthrow of the cities of the plain and other
biblical prophecies, Gore promises a rain of fire and brimstone on us,
unless we change our ways.
Gore also displays all the characteristics of the classical religious
hypocrite. He disregards his own proscriptions with abandonment and
ostentation. By his own measure (carbon footprint) his sins are great; at
least twenty times those of the average American. It is all right though,
because he purchases absolution (carbon offsets) through his own company. As
he is a private individual it is not known whether he profits directly, but
at a minimum he does not pay out of his taxable income and, worst of all, he
demonstrates that the rich are immune from any of the actual privation that
attachment to the new religion visits upon its poorer adherents. This is
also not unknown in traditional religions and has been a source of material
for satirists throughout the centuries.
Infidels and apostates
Religions vary in their treatment of unbelievers, which ranges from
disregard to slaughter. The new religion relies at present on verbal assault
and character assassination, though there are those who would go further.
They call the infidels "deniers" - a cheap and quite despicable verbal
reference to the Holocaust. There is a sustained campaign to deny the
deniers any sort of public platform for their views.
Apostates are universally even more reviled than infidels. They have turned
their backs on the true faith, whichever that might happen to be. Partial
apostates, or heretics, are even more loathed and through the ages have been
subjected to the most appalling punishments and deaths. In the case of the
"sceptical environmentalist", Bjorn Lomborg, he is of the faith. In fact he
is a serial believer; accepting, for example, that eating celery causes two
percent of all cancers and, of course, that global warming is man made, but
he rejects the sacrificing of humanity to the belief. This is unacceptable!
What are a few million deaths from dirty water, mosquito bites and other
hazards so long as people can be made to conform? So far he has only been
assaulted with insults and custard pies. Patrick Moore, a founder of
Greenpeace, broke with the movement over its growing anti-human,
anti-scientific tendencies and drift into extremism. The last straw for him
was the campaign against chlorine, not only an essential component of human
life but also the basis of one of the most dramatically life-saving hygienic
interventions. He has, consequently, been subjected to a prolonged campaign
of vilification, described as an eco-Judas, turncoat and traitor. Every
minor commentator or blogger who manifests disbelief can expect to be the
target of abuse from self-appointed protectors of the creed.
Sacrifice and ritual
It is part of human nature that we do not like to admit making a mistake,
even to ourselves. So if, for example, we buy a magic device that by some
mysterious means improves the fuel efficiency of our car, we drive a little
more conservatively in order to prove that we have not been had. Religions
exploit this weakness as a means creating and reinforcing commitment. If
someone can be induced or coerced into making a sacrifice they then have a
stake in the cause.
Windmills, for example, are the symbols of power, not physical power (of
which they are derisorily short) but political and religious power. They are
like the great domes of temples, the statues of Sadaam or the big "M" arch
of MacDonald's. Windmills are ugly: they destroy the visual (and aural)
landscape, but that is their purpose. They are part of the sacrifice. It
would not be so bad if they were simply useless, but it is worse than that.
Conventional generating systems of equivalent power have to operate for the
80%% of the time, while the wind is blowing too soft or too hard, and then be
switched to warm standby when it is just right, an expensive and wasteful
process. Windmills are there to remind us of our commitment, willing or not,
to the cause, both in excessive taxation and loss of visual and aural
amenity.
As in other forms of mental conditioning, continued reinforcement is a
necessary part of the process and that is where ritual comes in. Ritual
comprises tiny sacrifices infinitely repeated. Going round the house
switching off standby lights performs the same function as the repetitive
chanting of mantras. The fact that it is pointless is the whole point.
One of the most valuable ideas of modern engineering, lost in the noise, has
been lost in the noise. In most applications a change of, say, one part in
ten thousand is too small to be measured and therefore not worth
implementing. If standby in domestic devices ever were a problem, it is now
a rapidly diminishing one. In the old days of thermionic devices (valves or
tubes) it was necessary to keep cathodes heated to avoid a prolonged warming
up period, but transistors and LCDs do not have cathodes and are therefore
instantly available. Present standby powers are about five watts. In the
temperate zone that is transferred from your central heating bill for half
the year, though it is barely enough to keep your big toe warm. In fact, it
would be relatively easy to make the standby power microwatts, just enough
to power an optical sensor and decoder, though until now nobody thought such
a pointless exercise necessary.
Prophecy and divination
In the real world attempts at prophecy always come to a bad end. Only in
religious texts and the currently popular fantasy fiction do prophecies come
true. H G Wells, in The shape of things to come, successfully predicted the
mechanised War, as did Winston Churchill, but little else, and the film that
Wells closely supervised now provides rather comic entertainment (but
wonderful music). Even those of us closely involved in electronics did not
foresee that a development of the ancient art of writing on stone,
lithography, would result in millions of transistors being available on one
chip, changing the world forever, including granting new and sinister means
of control to those in authority.
Likewise, divination was greatly regarded in all cultures, ancient and
modern. Stars were observed, chickens and other animals slaughtered, so that
their steaming entrails could be examined to predict the future, cards were
shuffled and crystal balls peered into. Comparatively recently the leader of
the most powerful nation on earth relied on the advice of astrologers.
Now divination has returned with, for example, the examination of the
entrails of ancient trees. Though the methods used are invalid (they wrongly
assume linearity) and have been comprehensively shown to be irreproducible
and misleading, the results have been paraded before the world in defence of
draconian sacrificial policies.
The main form of modern divination, however, is computer models. Forty odd
years ago an instruction passed round the Faculty of Engineering of the
University of London that no PhDs were to be awarded on the basis of
computer models unsupported by measurement. As T S Eliot asked in Choruses
from The Rock
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
Now, huge and generously funded university and government departments do
nothing but develop computer models, involving assumptions about physical
interactions that are still not understood by science. Their dubious (to say
the least) results are used by the new international priesthood to frighten
the people into conformity.
Puritans and killjoys
No one has bettered Mencken's definition of Puritanism - the haunting fear
that someone, somewhere, may be happy. It is an unfortunate characteristic
of many varieties of religion that this characteristic is to the fore and
Global Warming is far from being an exception. Nothing the proponents offer
involves an improvement or even maintenance of human contentment, quite the
opposite in fact. You might think that any philosophy of life would involve
swings and roundabouts, good and bad, but think again. Virtually everything
you enjoy is now sinful - holidays, driving your car, having a comfortable
temperature in your home, being free from the stink of rotting garbage, and
on and on.
As with the flagellants of old, for some people a feeling of
self-righteousness not only transcends all discomforts, but derives from
them. The rest of us have to be coerced into conformity.
It is an unfortunate fact of life that there are people who get their kicks
out of pushing other people around. The existence of little pleasures of
life, such as savouring a fine wine or cigar (and even more so the
proletarian equivalents) is intolerable to them. They will exploit any
means - the distortion of science, the suborning of weak politicians, the
repetition of mendacious propaganda - to achieve the elimination of the
hated practices. The eleventh commandment for the killjoys is "Thou shalt
not have fun", and global warming provides a delightful playground for them.
Censorship and angles
Freedom of speech and publication is at the very heart of science. Even the
most foolish of hypotheses is allowed to be offered for examination. In much
of religion the opposite is true; challenging the established dogma is
heresy, for which the punishment has ranged from ostracism to horrific
torture and death. One of the greatest ironies produced by the successful
policy of entryism by the eco-theologians is that it is none other than the
Royal Society that has been orchestrating the attempt to censor any
deviation from establishment beliefs. Authoritarian politicians, such as
Congressman Brad Miller, would give such suppression the force of law.
It is a curious repetition of history that those who advance the hypothesis
that the sun is the controlling element in changes of climate are vilified,
just as Galileo was, for supporting the Copernican heliocentric description
of the solar system. Yet the sun is clearly the driver for climate - if it
stopped shining, the earth's temperature would drop to near absolute zero.
In the establishment dogma the sun is barely mentioned, while the puny
efforts of mankind are gratuitously magnified out of proportion. In a
scientific approach to climate, a full understanding of the behaviour of
that solitary driver would be the first prerequisite, but this is waived in
the interests of piety; so leading solar researchers have been deprived of
funding.
One of the most exploited ways of angling the news is by "ratchet reporting"
. News of unusual warm weather, for example, is given copious coverage,
while cold weather is studiously ignored. Thus the spring of 2007 was
disastrously cold in parts of North America, with ice-bound ships and
snowed-off baseball, but this was kept secret from the British, whose
wonderful summery April was presented as though it were bad news (and that
in the land of rheumatism and bronchitis!). The fact that Britain had no
spring at all in 2006 was conveniently forgotten, except as a basis of
comparison to establish that 2007 was substantially warmer.
That the media know that they are peddling untruths is demonstrated by these
tricks they get up to. If they were confident of the truth of their case
there would be no need to fake the coverage. They have been frequently
caught out faking their numbers and graphs, but only a few internet surfers
know about it. If you think have a good case, you can afford to present both
sides, but they don't. The great majority of the population have no idea
that there is an alternative view. That is not science, it is religion.
Control and taxation
Religion has always played an important part in the imposition of authority.
For many centuries it took the form of the "Divine Right of Kings" or the
"Mandate of Heaven". Once you get the people to believe, you can get away
with almost any imposition. The alliance between the shaman and the
legislator has long been the very foundation of authoritarianism. Even when
the dogma is a godless one, such as Marxism, it is imposed with religious
fervour, for that is the way to induce conformity.
People now accept laws that restrict their liberty and standard of living,
which would once have provoked riots, because they are cloaked in a
quasi-religious formula of environmentalism. So-called environmental
burdens, for example, now greatly outweigh the incremental effect of the
poll tax that met with such violent opposition in England, yet are now
meekly accepted, as is the parasitic presence of various forms of snooper,
who even invade people's dustbins.
Contradictions and irrationality
Traditional religions not only tolerated contradiction and irrationality,
they embrace them as part of the mystique. Words and phrases are repeated ad
nauseam and in strange contexts, until they lose all meaning and become
self-preserving mantras.
Contradictions and irrationality also abound in the modern theocratic world.
The EU, for example, gratuitously destroys a tiny industry making
traditional barometers, on the grounds of an irrational fear of mercury,
then imposes the use of fluorescent light bulbs that distribute that same
dreaded substance in huge quantities across the continent, all on the basis
of the threat of global warming.
People who have never heard of Wien or Planck confidently assert that it is
"obvious" that man-made CO2 will cause runaway warming of the planet, when
it is not at all obvious to many who are familiar with the works of those
gentlemen. It is obvious in the sense that it is obvious that believers will
have everlasting life or that a senseless act of self-immolation will earn
the eternal attentions of 72 virgins in Paradise. The capacity to believe
six impossible things before breakfast has been restored from fantasy to
accepted normality.
Wealth and power
Some organisms develop the ingredients to survive and multiply, so it is
with business and religions. It is characteristic of businesses that they
dispose of the entrepreneurs who create them and are taken over by a
different breed of corporate manager: so it is with religions. The brutally
suppressed troglodytes who were the early Christians of Rome were a
different breed from the cardinals, bishops and abbots who bestrode
mediaeval Europe and lived the opulent life. There were also, of course, the
humble and saintly mendicant friars. The equivalents of all these varieties
exist within the new movement.
Money is the basis of the new religion. It poured in from various
foundations (the so-called ketchup money) and na