Just a note on an essay from George Mason University’s History News Network blog, on the symmetry between organized religion and environmentalism (or at least the catastrophic kind getting the headlines at the moment):
- Both are highly moralistic and use the language and strategies of “sinfulness.” This also involves an implied and often explicit claim to have monopolized the moral high ground.
- Both involve the idea that one must sacrifice now for some undetermined future reward. This makes the Lent connection very logical.
- Both have historically been very quick to label and condemn as “heretics” those who disagree with them.
- Both have a tendency toward irrationalism and mysticism, e.g. the Gaia strand of environmentalism.
Of course this has been noted before by Michael Crichton:
Today, one of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists. Why do I say it’s a religion? Well, just look at the beliefs. If you look carefully, you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths.
There’s an initial Eden, a paradise, a state of grace and unity with nature, there’s a fall from grace into a state of pollution as a result of eating from the tree of knowledge, and as a result of our actions there is a judgment day coming for us all. We are all energy sinners, doomed to die, unless we seek salvation, which is now called sustainability. Sustainability is salvation in the church of the environment. Just as organic food is its communion, that pesticide-free wafer that the right people with the right beliefs, imbibe.
Eden, the fall of man, the loss of grace, the coming doomsday—these are deeply held mythic structures. They are profoundly conservative beliefs. They may even be hard-wired in the brain, for all I know. I certainly don’t want to talk anybody out of them, as I don’t want to talk anybody out of a belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God who rose from the dead. But the reason I don’t want to talk anybody out of these beliefs is that I know that I can’t talk anybody out of them. These are not facts that can be argued. These are issues of faith.
And so it is, sadly, with environmentalism. Increasingly it seems facts aren’t necessary, because the tenets of environmentalism are all about belief. It’s about whether you are going to be a sinner, or saved. Whether you are going to be one of the people on the side of salvation, or on the side of doom. Whether you are going to be one of us, or one of them. [my emphasis]
I recommend both essays.
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4 comments ↓
What is amazing, in my mind, is how prevalent this religion is. It speaks to some basic need in humanity. But that need is way different than the need that is served by a God-based religion (which is a spiritual salvation of some kind). Just what makes environmentalism such a strong force?
jae says: “Just what makes environmentalism such a strong force?”
By and large, I think people are altruistically motivated. This motivation to altruism has been hijacked by the few who are not so motivated to altruism. The traditional sources of assurance in the West abdicated leaving the throne vacant. Just a hunch.
Corroborating the environmentalism=religion argument. The Git has an appallingly low carbon footprint, mainly because he grows his own organic food, grows trees to burn for firewood that cooks his food, heats his water and provides space-heating in wintertime. He is however an Apostate because he doesn’t believe the Green Mantra. Think Bjorn Lomborg & Patrick Moore.
Al Gore with a huge carbon footprint is saved because he believes in the Faith. In most religion, faith trumps actions and works.
Jae:
As Michael Crichton wrote:
So the answer is that secularity, agnosticism and atheism are religious in nature even if they are non-theistic and naturalistic.
Which means that they are as susceptible to apocalyptic fever, or what has been called “informational cascade” as other more organized religious movements.
Communism was the previous choice of the secularist before environmentalism for a religion. Remember the basic social unit besides family is the tribe. Being part of a group is a strong drive in human nature. Capitalism, which stresses individualism, is unsatisfying to many and even frightening because it doesn’t provide a sense of group. Since capitalism must therefore be bad, ideologies that oppose it must a priori be good. Having an ideology that makes you part of the “good” tribe also gives the sense of being one of the saved. No different than someone who belongs to the “right” church or religion (for sports team) sees themselves as better than those who don’t.
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