A Secular Religion ...

It's not what they don't know that hurts them.
It is what they know that just ain't so.

Anonymous

A book that was written in 1841 by Charles Mackay. Titled Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, it remains a worthwhile chronicle – at least through the mid-nineteenth century – of some of the consequences of mankind’s periodic collapses into mass-mindedness. If Mackay was around today, he would be able to devote a chapter to the emergence of the latest secular religion: Environmentalism.

It is a common mistake for people to assume that religious faith and fervor are qualities to be found only within institutionally-structured churches with formal doctrines and rituals. They are to be found, in varying degrees, within all belief systems, be they secular or theistic in nature. The polar opposite philosophies of Marxism and Ayn Rand’s Objectivism – both of which openly condemned traditional religion – are, themselves, grounded in a faith in various central propositions. True-believers of these doctrines who voiced doubt as to any of the underlying premises, have been subjected to purges as enthusiastically conducted as medieval trials for heresy.

Perhaps it is the engineer-side of me that insists upon people presenting evidence for their allegedly empirical statements. Using such a standard has led me to conclude that the Earth is, indeed, currently undergoing global warming; and that it has undergone fluctuations between periods of “cooling” and “warming” since long before humans appeared on the planet. Indeed, astronomers report that other planets – particularly Mars – are experiencing similar climate changes as those of Earth. Unless the apostles of the global warming orthodoxy are prepared to lay the blame for Mars’ increased temperatures and melting ice caps on a transmigration of human-generated entropic wastes, factual evidence would suggest looking beyond Earth, itself, for explanations.

The study of “chaos” and complexity also reminds that complex systems are influenced by far too many variables of unknown and incalculable factors to permit reliable predictions. Nowhere is this more evident than in efforts to predict local weather. Indeed, the study of chaos was precipitated when MIT professor, Edward Lorenz, used computers to experiment with weather forecasting in the early 1960s. Lorenz discovered what all of us who have tried to make long-term plans for picnics have learned: predicting the weather is quite unreliable beyond two to three days time. There are simply too many unknown and unknowable factors influencing the weather.

The religious nature of the global warming cult also finds expression in the purchase of “carbon offsets,” with which to compensate for excessive CO2 production. This practice has been likened, by some, to the medieval church practice of selling “indulgences.” And like many other religions, this emerging sect has its own version of an apocalypse, with mankind facing a cosmic cataclysm unless we humans end our sinful ways and embrace the secular theology.



現今的左翼環保運動，便集合了一切宗教的元素﹕環保團體變成了可以預言「生態大災難」的「先知」，宣揚以電腦模擬推算出來的「全球暖化」末日論，個人消費行被視為「破壞大自然的原罪」，「救贖」的方法則是透過政府的干預和禁制，「淨化」我們的浪費習慣，為下一代 (來世) 創造一個「大自然伊甸園」。更往往會狂妄自大到荒謬的地步﹕例如認為人類的力量可以「拯救全球氣候變化」，把氣溫變化「控制在攝氏兩度之內」﹔他們更不相信自然界的災害是「上帝的意旨」(Act of God)，於是把風暴、乾旱、水浸等天災通通歸咎於人們「不環保」的消費行為。在這種教義之下，人類反而變成了一種令「地球先生」生病的病毒。

話說回來，上帝是否信得過？這的確不能以科學解釋，不過，歷史經驗卻告訴我們，一個沒有上帝的社會，往往會變成一個「大政府幻覺」的温床，培養出大批迷信政府干預的信徒。這些「大政府」信徒亦不會像上帝般仁慈，等待我們死後才審判我們的罪過。他們要的是政府從速立法，馬上就要懲罰我們「褻瀆大自然」的原罪。

環保宗教分子認為現代科技破壞了「人類和大自然的和諧共處」，卻忘記了人類的歷史正是一頁頁與大自然搏鬥、不斷忍受各種大自然災害煎熬的紀錄。其實，清新空氣、潔淨環境，原本就是人類與生俱來的偏好，節儉向來亦是一種傳統美德，又哪需要環保分子去「教導」？不過，正如剛才說過，現今的環保運動是一種精英主義，他們不信任羣眾，認為只有環保精英才知道甚麼才是「環保」、甚麼才是「浪費」﹔其所針對的，其實都是一些價錢低廉、廣受羣眾歡迎的大眾化消費。所以，你會看見環保分子不會介意富豪買一瓶沒有包上花紙的數萬元紅酒，卻會認為我們一兩盒包上花紙的數十元糖果是「浪費」這種荒謬現象。

環保的大祭司們，以粗疏的科學假設立教，向信眾宣揚生態大災難的末日論，拒絕一切合理的懷疑和理性的討論，叫大家「只要信、不要問」。可能，他們聲稱帶領信眾重返的「大自然伊甸園」，實際上從來都未曾在地球出現過。