The New Republic’s Rebecca Leber seems very upset
You Can’t “Believe” in Climate Change
It’s not a religion. It’s a scientific fact.Lst week, Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy made little impression on Republican senators at an Environment and Public Works hearing, where she said, “Climate change is not a religion. It is not a belief system. It’s a science fact.†She would have been better off aiming her remarks at a different audience—anyone who says he or she “believes” in climate change.
The phrase, “believe in climate change†returns almost a quarter-million Google results. As McCarthy said, science is neither a faith nor a religion, yet the term belief pervades media and politics. Why do advocates so consistently play along with the climate-change-denier narrative?
Conservatives have long drawn comparisons between climate change science and a fervent religion. A 2013 National Review column articulated the parallels thus: “Religion has ritual. Global-warming alarmism has recycling and Earth Day celebrations. Some religions persecute heretics. Some global-warming alarmists identify ‘denialists’ and liken them to Holocaust deniers.â€
I agree, it’s not a religion: it’s a cult
Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups – Revised (Janja Lalich, Ph.D. & Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.)
- The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law. (in this case, there are multiple leaders)
- Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
- Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s). (spreading awareness, demonstrations, dressing as polar bears, etc)
- The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel
- The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary
- The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.
There are many others, I obviously do not want to excerpt the entire article. And when they start yammering on about it being a “scientific fact” and are presented with contradictory evidence, they go loony. Cult.
