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Sunday, August 25, 2019

The New Religion

Roman Emperor Constantine
Borepatch puts up a post about music, science and logic and it got me to thinking. Remember when the destruction of the ozone layer was the big boogeyman? Now we have climate change and we're all going to die. How do these ideas become political movements? It occurs to me they start with a scientist who becomes enthusiastic about an idea and he starts telling people about it and one of the people he tells is a politician who is impressed with this scientist's enthusiasm and becomes convinced that "something needs to be done", and it grows from there.

Western Civilization is inexorably entwined with the Christian Religion, but the Christian religion has been been flagging lately, partly due to the whole mystical nonsense bit. The Ten Commandments were a good start, but somehow we got this whole celestial fantasy with angels and devils and heaven and hell and all that is having a hard time with our evidence based science.

Some (most?) people seem to need to believe in something outside of their miserable little lives, and if their religion doesn't pass the smell test anymore, well, they'll look around for something else, and hey, what do we have here? Looks like Global Warming might be the new religion. For some people anyway. For some people it might be cricket.*

* Apologies to Brian for implying that his affection for cricket might be a form of insanity, but his post on the subject warmed my heart.

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1 comment:

  1. xoxoxoBruceAugust 25, 2019 at 2:31:00 PM PDT

    The scientist is the guy standing in the road waving his arms to warn you the bridge is out. You see the bridge out, thank him, happily ever after.
    But sometime he’s warning you the bridge may fail at any moment. You see the bridge still there, curse him, and may or may not happily ever after.
    I believe the primary reason we defeated the Ozone Layer boogyman is the market saw an opportunity to make money helping us change our ways. We did, they did, it worked.

    The changes needed to slow Global Warming would affect the people who derive wealth from maintaining business as usual. Naturally they will fight it tooth and nail using any obfuscation, distraction, or misdirection possible. These people already employ the folks that convinced you cigarettes cure asthma and every family secretly craves molded Jello/veggie salads.

    Just like the Pentagon calls up National Guard units, the best way to build an army is to win the allegiance of already bonded groups rather than individuals.
    If you’re are a true _____* you’ll be fer us, not agin us.

    *fill in: American, Pizza lover, Patriot, Cowboy fan, Christian, Alumni, Libertarian, whatever works.

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