There is a new Paganism taking root around the world and it manifests itself
as environmentalism or more explicitly, Pantheism, a doctrine identifying
the Deity with the universe and its phenomena, Fundamentalist Environmentalism,
if you will.
Pantheism is a metaphysical and religious
position, it is the view that "God is everything and everything is God, the world is either identical with God or in some way a self-expression of his nature” Similarly, it is the view that everything that exists constitutes a "unity" and
this all-inclusive unity is in some sense divine.
Anthropologists have observed in cultures the world over
that specific social structures are always present, and religion in one form
or another is always one of these constants. Apparently religion is never
eliminated from society and integral in the psyche of a human’s nature, if you suppress it in one form, it re-emerges in another. The environmentalist’s pantheism seems to be emerging as the new pagan religion of many of the world’s
secularists. Many who revere the earth would deny they do so as a religion
but anthropological anecdotes tell a different tale.
Dr. Michael S. Coffman President of Environmental Perspectives
said: “Diametrically opposite to Christianity, Judaism and Islam pantheistic
beliefs make no allowance for a one true God who created all things of nature.
Instead, pantheism holds that all earth and all of nature is god, comprised
of many gods and goddesses, all of whom demand total worship and obedience
from every human. Failure to do so will evoke the wrath of these gods. Over
the past 30 years, these pantheistic beliefs have gradually dominated the
environmental policies of both the United States and the United Nations.
And, they are interwoven into every environmental international treaty, especially
the Convention on Biological Diversity.”
Author Michael Crichton who studied anthropology in college
has made some very astute observations as well, he states: “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, and
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.“
fun·da·men·tal·ism: Usually a religious movement or point of
view characterized by a return to fundamental principles, by rigid adherence
to those principles, and often by intolerance of other views. - This definition
reinforces what we have already learned about religious fundamentalists, they
have no perspective on themselves and they are incapable of entertaining reasoned
arguments antithetical to their belief, because beliefs of a religion are not
dependent on facts, but rather are matters of faith.
When one analyzes fundamental environmentalism with this understanding it explains a lot of their behavior. This Neo-Pagan movement consistently buys the freshest red herring doomsday scenario put forth then supports it with agenda driven convoluted distortions of fact and lies. They then march forward with disingenuous arguments to support their red herring agenda because their faith encourages rationalization that trumps ethics to reach their means to an end.
Fundamentalist environmentalists profess their beliefs
much like the recent outrages from fundamentalist Christian Pat Robertson’s, from their heart but often with nothing at all to back it up but their conviction and faith. In our modern complex world, fundamentalism is dangerous because of its rigidity and its imperviousness to other ideas and its aversion to reasoned dialog. Making a reasoned argument to a Fundamentalist Environmentalist to harvest any of earth’s
recourses is akin to asking a Christian to give up Jesus.
Eco-extremist Herb Hammond has said: "Of all the components of the ecosystem, humans are the only ones we know to be completely optional".
|