[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by GasHouseGang

I thought this was an interesting way of looking at climate change that I had never considered. From an article in The New Atlantis, Environmentalism as Religion by Joel Garreau:

For some individuals and societies, the role of religion seems increasingly to be filled by environmentalism. It has become “the religion of choice for urban atheists,” according to Michael Crichton, the late science fiction writer (and climate change skeptic). In a widely quoted 2003 speech, Crichton outlined the ways that environmentalism “remaps” Judeo-Christian beliefs:

"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."

Religious fundamentalists can look at anything and say "_____ has replaced religion today." Whatever it takes to try and feel less bewildered about the fact that not everyone is like them.