What does the United Nations have in common with the Jehovah’s Witnesses? The Jehovah’s Witnesses predicted the world would end in 1975. The United Nations foretold how “entire nations would be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000.” Both forecasts failed the test of prophetic fulfilment.
A religious person who says the world is coming to an end is a crank. A secular person who says the world is coming to an end is an eco-warrior. A religious organisation that says the end times are nigh is an apocalyptic cult for suicidal weirdos like the Branch Davidians of Waco, Texas. A secular body counting down to the apocalypse is an environmental organisation worthy of millions of dollars of government funding.
Welcome to the brave new cult of climate change alarmism where secular eco-warriors unabashedly embrace religious apocalypticism! I was poised to pen an essay on this new religious sect when I stumbled across Greta Thunberg—the Joan of Arc of environmentalism—and I realised that apocalyptic hysteria was only part of the canonical narrative of climate change.
Sixteen-year-old Thunberg is the Swedish patron saint of the Church of Climate Change. Like the three godly Portuguese shepherd children Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco who saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary and sparked a global Marian devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, godless Greta had her “end of the world” revelations after her teachers showed her class the Al Gore genre of films—plastic in the ocean, starving polar bears and blah blah bogeyman.
“I cried through the movies. Those pictures were stuck in my head,” she tells The Guardian. Like the pious fruitcake with his “JUDGEMENT DAY IS COMING!” sandwich board and bargain-basement bullhorn, Thunberg adopted the avatar of an Old Testament exilic prophet and skipped school every Friday to parade outside the Swedish parliament last August.
In six months, the pigtailed teenager who has the “look of apocalyptic dread in her eyes” has more devotees than a 14-handed Hindu goddess. Greta has become the pin-up poster girl for climate crusaders from Pope Francis and Jean-Claude Juncker to Britain’s Environment Secretary Michael Gove and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She was even invited to address the Mother of all Parliaments and theExtinction Rebellion protests in London.
“We just want people to listen to science,” Greta tells politicians with pom-poms who are cheering for the child prophetess. “You don’t listen to the science because you are only interested in solutions that will enable you to carry on like before,” she told Britain’s mesmerised Members of Parliament, in a gloom n’ doom speech not unlike Ezekiel’s prophecy of the Valley of Dry Bones.
But Greta doesn’t do climatalogical science; her speciality is eschatological scare mongering. “I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day,” she preachedto the billionaires of the Davos Milky Way at the World Economic Forum.
Greta’s fear of nature is humanity’s oldest phobia. Thor, the Norse god of storms, has her terrified. This grand warrior with his insatiable appetite and his arsenal of nature’s weapons could unleash Mjollnir, his mighty hammer, capable of harnessing thunder and lightening.
Climate alarmism is rooted in a pre-scientific mythological view of the world. It has an end-time eschatology, but it also has a cosmology coloured with the fear-ridden creation stories of pre-biblical cultures where the forces of nature are divinised and demand to be placated.
The creation myths of Thunberg’s Norse mythology aren’t very different from the earliest Babylonian creation myths. Enuma Elishbegins with sweet-water father god Apsu and salt-water mother god Tiamat giving birth to many gods. The younger gods are making a racket, so Apsu and the older gods decide to kill the kids so they can catch a nap.
Tiamat and the younger gods fight back. The older gods seek a champion to fight Tiamat. Marduk accepts the challenge. He makes a deal. If he wins, he wants to be made head of the pantheon. Marduk fights Tiamat. He catches her in a net, drives an evil wind down her throat, shoots an arrow into her belly, pierces her heart and splits her skull.
He stretches out her corpse full-length and from it he creates the cosmos. After the creation of the world, the gods complain of poor meals being served. Marduk and his father Ea execute one of the captive gods, and from his blood they create human beings to be servants to the gods.
Creation is an act of violence. The forces of chaos in nature, which mostly take the form of the turbulent sea monster (Tiamat), are only temporarily tamed. They are always lurking beneath the deceptively calm surface of the sea, straining at the leash, threatening to reverse creation and turn order back to chaos. No wonder our pagan ancestors ascribed divinity to earthquakes, floods, thunder and lightening and lived in constant fear of “climate change.”
In Norse mythology, the cosmological battle begins when the Midgard serpent emerges from the sea. The serpent is on the giant’s side taking his giant tail to splash water over the Vigrid plains and spray poison in all directions to produce bad air quality and kill as many beings as possible.
Thunberg’s ancestors placated the forces of nature by animal or human sacrifice. Young Greta invites us to offer sacrifices of fossil fuels, air travel, et al. She persuaded her mother to sacrifice flying, which severely impacted her mom’s career as an opera singer. Her father sacrificed eating meat and became a vegetarian. Thunberg is a vegan and travels abroad only by train.
But living in fear of nature and appeasing the gods of nature is only Act One in the cult of climate alarmism. It is Act Two that launches activists like Greta into seeing themselves as heroes who “overcome the monster” of primeval chaos.
Christopher Booker in The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories, analyses why there may be “only seven (or six, or five) basic stories in the world” which continually recur “in the storytelling of mankind, shaping tales of very different types and from almost every age and culture.”
These archetypal stories shape the human imagination and influence behaviour. The first basic plot is what Booker calls ‘Overcoming the Monster.’ Such legends of the slaughter of a hostile monster are found all over the world. The hero (or heroine) wages war against the destructive monster and saves the planet.
The essence of the ‘Overcoming the Monster’ story is an awareness of the existence of some superhuman embodiment of evil power threatening an entire community or the world. The hero must confront this monster and with the help of some kind of ‘magic weapons’ slay the monster and save humanity. The archetypal Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh is the legend of the hero Gilgamesh who engages in a titanic struggle with the monstrous superhuman figure of Humbaba and by a superhuman feat kills him.
Greta Thunberg and her Extinction Rebellion heroes and heroines (dressed in the vestments of red like the College of Cardinals) are high priests in this cultic drama. Like our premodern ancestors, they live in perpetual fear of nature’s monstrous pantheon of gods and goddesses and seek to placate them through sacrifice (forcing governments and taxpayers to offer oblations).
But deep down the eco-warriors also know that the divinities of nature are capricious—they are often inebriated by human carbon emissions—and so they need to be fought and conquered. That’s when Thunberg and her troops turn into guardians of the planet and heroes who will conquer and save the planet.
It is a strange paradox that Enuma Elish and the Gilgamesh epic have resonances with creation and flood stories of the book of Genesis. It is a stranger paradox that the creation story in Genesis caused a cataclysmic fissure in humanity’s relationship with nature. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” and God’s mandate to humans to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion…” became the most subversive lines in history.
Post-Genesis, nature was no longer seen as a succession of quarrelling deities to be feared and appeased but creation was viewed the handiwork of an intelligent and loving designer to be enjoyed, explored and cultivated. Historians of science believe that these explosive lines gave birth to modern science in the West.
But as the West rejects its founding Judaeo-Christian documents and returns to the pre-scientific mythology of Thor and Odin, Marduk and Tiamat, it is no longer Isaac Newton his successors, but Greta Thunberg and her climate cult priestesses who will be the preachers of the new religion of climate change alarmism.
Originally published in Frontpage Mag.
This piece is a keeper: a mythology seminar, a history lesson, and a devastating attack on the climate scam, placing it in a context that reveals its pagan, unscientific roots. Bravo, Dr Gomes!
During my lifetime:
1. Nuclear winter caused by the USA and the Soviets bombing the planet to a mutually assured destruction.
Didn’t happen
2. The population is growing so fast we won’t be able to feed everyone.
Didn’t happen
3. We’re heading for a new ice age, we’ll all freeze to death.
Didn’t happen
4. We’re running out of oil and gas, no more cars
Didn’t happen
5. Sea levels are rising, Norfolk (UK) and several low lying islands around the world will be gone forever
Didn’t happen
6. Acid rain wipes out the forests of Scandinavia and Europe
Didn’t happen
7. Donald Trump will destroy the world economy
Didn’t happen
8. Brexit will result on all British people starving and having no health care
That definitely didn’t happen.
9. Eco warriors leave tons of polluting litter behind after their protests
Happened
Homer,
Your number 9 is absolutely correct. Step 1 in addressing global climate change should be outlawing climate change conferences in major vacation destinations. Should all be online to avoid air travel and air conditioning of huge hotels, which environmentalists blame for the problem. And governments around the world should seize the SUVs, air conditioners, motor boats, lawn mowers, pesticides and herbicides of all the environmental activists, and ban them from air travel- since they want governments to ban those things for the rest of us.
While the first 8 items on your list are correct as of 8:45 am EDT May 10, 2019, it might be more correct to say that they have not happened yet. Except your numbers 2 and 5. Ask the GAFCON bishops from Africa how well we feed everyone. LIkewise, ask the Global South about sea levels. For several, rising sea levels are endangering coastal areas and low lying islands are getting smaller. Even the east coast of the US has seen increased beach erosion and some fresh water swamps of 20 years ago are salt water marshes today.
And on your number 8, we have no idea what will happen, because Brexit hasn’t happened yet. The people charged with making it happen don’t want it to happen, so maybe it never will (which may be your point, and may prove correct). On that point, there are some parallels between HM Government and HM Church of England- keep writing reports and making promises and then write more reports, retake this or that vote, and just keep it up until the elite get what they want. What will happen once the British population wakes up and realizes that they are not part of a Constitutional Monarchy (like they think they are), but in reality being ruled by an Elitist Oligarchy, no one knows, but it likely won’t be pretty.
As I understand it the sea has risen a maximum of 8 inches in the past century or so. That can be significant but it is still a pretty small rise so far. It would have to be a very low-lying island for there to be much decrease in its high-tide area. Many of the coastal encroachments by the sea have been caused by human activity largely unrelated to sea level rise. Building houses in the foredune zone behind beaches is one widespread cause of water action that doesn’t allow the natural erosion and rebuilding of beaches to occur. The erosion happens during storms but the sand can’t return during quiet periods, as it always did before man interfered.
” Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Revelation 21:1
Logic and Scripture tell us that a finite planet Earth containing a limited amount of natural resources cannot sustain an unlimited human population.
Else why space exploration?
So whilst I agree with the points you make I don’t share your complacency!
The fact is that our Earth will eventually die, either through environmental collapse or nuclear war, or even being smitten with an asteroid of large proportions.
(Although I discount the last one because that’s not how the Bible says it happens..)
I think we are seeing an environmental crisis approaching; but whether it be part of the End Times as spoken of in the Bible, is a moot point.
We know from scientific research and history that there have been climatic fluctuations, but (as far as we know), Man has never existed in such numbers as today; a consequence of which is that we may unwittingly end up doing irreparable damage to the only home we know..
Don’t forget Y2K.
If there is no environmentally friendly waste disposal system nearby, the only sane and responsible thing for an Eco warrior to do is allow the wind to carefully guide it to the nearest approved disposal point..
Personally for me the greatest danger to human beings Is an eternity without God. We do have a duty to be good stewards of creation, but saving souls comes first.
Most unfortunately, “climate change” activists become like religious fanatics when they refuse to accept scientific studies which contradict their theories, and try to suppress discussion of new research.
One scientific axiom is correlation does not necessarily mean causation; other factors may be involved. The rule of powers comes into play. We are very sure the force of gravity and distance are related because the force is inversely proportional to the SQUARE of the distance. Likewise the free surface effect on a ships’ tanks is to the CUBE of the tank’s width.
I am confused by this. Certainly sources, studies, and scientific reports should be considered. In many cases, the body of the UN reports do not support the hysterical “summaries” which are political documents, not science. There is a great deal of scientific research and discussion going on, and many highly credentialed scientists believe that the predictions of the global warming activists are wildly overstated, at the least, if not entirely wrong.
No one with any sense, scientist or not, opposes efforts to remove actual pollutants from air and water. The crisis argument asserts that carbon dioxide is a major pollutant causing the warming. Many scientists disagree.
Neither free market politicians nor central planning politicians (which are better terms than “right” and “left”) should treat scientific investigations as a matter for religious belief.
I think we are arguing past each other. Scientific truth is not a matter of “consensus” or polls showing how many believe which theory. If the theory is true, evidence developed by careful scientific inquiry will establish it. If the objections are NOT true, scientific inquiry will establish that as well. All scientific breakthroughs in the past have been, in their times, controversial, because “everyone” believed the old paradigm.
Those who do not accept the climate alarmist theories do not support destroying the environment. That’s a false dichotomy. I oppose massive political schemes to tax carbon or other “climate” schemes not because I want to dirty the land and air but because I don’t think the science supports the idea that the schemes would help. That’s not religion. Conversely, when religious authorities, who are not scientists, tell me that my faith requires me to support some tax scheme or other, I find that is using religion for political purposes.
The problem arises in what it is that religious authorities consider “moral conflict.” I have no quarrel with religious authorities who condemn the use of tax money for the performance of or facilitation of elective abortions, for instance. However, many “liberal” religious authorities in the USA support elective abortion, so even that topic becomes political. Far too often, religious authorities step into arguments about what economic and regulatory policies will produce the best results for their nations and the citizens thereof. Usually, those religious leaders have no business to be involved in those types of discussions as religious matters.
I have many doubts about the true nature of climate change and indeed their effects have been exagerated, like in the Al Gore documentary, but concerning Greta Thurnberg people should realise that she suffers from Asperger syndrome, obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), and selective mutism. People tend to sympathize with her because she is a teenager.
Scientists just like members of the 4th Estate have lost their cred. Everyday we see “A study shows…. such in such.” Nothing follows. The climate change scientists build models to mimic earth on their computers. It is quite possible a useful model to mimic earth would need to be (drum roll) the size of earth! CO2 is easily measured so this is the variable chosen for everything else to correlate. Each year climate scientists renormalize their models (throw in a constant) to make their data agree with the present and then see how it holds up going back in time and make appropriate adjustments. I like CO2 myself. Not as much as plants who love it.
The conclusion is some sort of artificial carbon credits market that hedge fund managers like Tom Steyer can manipulate. If one is serious about being carbon neutral, the fastest way to get there is like France and generate 70% of your energy with nuclear. Someone should have told Macron.
The waste problem was solved thirty years ago. Glassification. Chernobyl was a really bad accident. Around 100 deaths can be attributed to it. The flooding of the Japanese plant by tsunami has claimed one life so far.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciStnd9Y2ak Interesting
-Kevin
There is Pious Bias and there is Science Bias. If you are a Climate scientist and you only get your grant money from ‘bad news’ — what type of news are you likely to conclude and pubish? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK6pYLhcJx4
As an extremely successful journalist, I can tell you there is no $ is ‘good news’. But, of course all sides have bias.
-Kevin
Don’t make the mistake of confusing concern for a clean environment, fighting against pollution, caring for plants and animals, etc. with climate change as an ideology. The ideology is totalitarian and neo-pagan (as Dr Gomes has pointed out).
Yes. But it is so costly. We try to do the right thing. My septic tank has an issue. Wrote a $1k check to the designer and $500 check for a permit this morning. Looking forward to the cost of the new concrete tank, pump chamber, various pumps, and installation. It hurts but I want the salt water bay I live on to be clean although the coliform count mostly comes from the city treatment plant.
Thanks for reminding me I need to dig up the access to the distribution box and check to see if the walnut tree roots have got into the system….
Good luck. It started out as a simple replacement of the alarm float switch and pump out. The system still works fine but the septic tank is collapsing. Meanwhile, the tent city at the head of the bay has untreated effluent along with city street human waste draining into the bay.
You overlook the fact that historically we know climate change has happened regardless of man’s presence. Since my country gave the world the Industrial Revolution we have seen an increase in industrial activity and it has spread all around the world.
So I believe we are negatively affecting our environment, but there are other factors affecting climate change as has always been the case.
Oh I don’t blame my country either!
In fact I am quietly pleased that Great Britain led the world in manufacturing and development, even though it involved some cruelty, exploitation and social suffering*
* I include the social suffering bit because some people seem to think that we British always had it good, whereas recorded history shows that the working classes suffered terribly from poverty, deprivation and poor diet..
Secondly we cannot blame the rest of the world for wanting to improve their own standard of living through industrialisation, but it is the incredible increase in pollution which causes us concern.
As I said earlier a finite earth can only sustain a finite number of human beings and their activities. We might be able to accommodate more by building upwards or even downwards, but what quality of life will future generations have? What will our world be like without wild life and dead seas?
It was never the official position of Jehovah’s Witnesses that the world would end in 1975. But besides that, Jehovah’s Witnesses are keeping on the watch for the signs of the times – just as did Jesus apostles. Both Jesus’ apostles and Jehovah’s Witnesses have had mistaken expectations at times, but we are loyal to God and His teaching – additionally, we courageously proclaim God’s Kingdom as the only solution to the world’s problems.
And you believe only 144,000 will be saved. Are you one of the chosen, NC?
Thank you for your question. I can understand how you might’ve come to such a conclusion, but this is what we really believe. Salvation is open to just as many people as will demonstrate true faith in the provision that God has made through Jesus. But the Bible is clear that only 144,000 will go to heaven to be with Christ (Rev. 14:1, 3). The Bible teaches that this group will rule as kings and priests for 1,000 years (Rev. 20:6). Clearly they will need people to rule over and this is what the Bible teaches (Matt. 5:5; 6:9). There are many other thoughts which support this view – but this is the potted explanation.
Yea, yea! Your founder was a fraud. He lied that he could read Greek and said the translated the New Testament from the Greek but when he was put under oath and given a Greek New Testament he couldn’t read it. Did you know this? If he did really know Greek, he would know about the anarthrous definite article in John 1:1. JW’s are a cult.
I’m not really concerned with what Charles Taze Russell thought. What’s important is what the Bible teaches. And it is simply mistaken that John 1:1 should be translated definitely. Firstly, The text portion which should be translated “a god” had no definite article. Also, the context indicates that the meaning was indefinite. The reason being that: (1) the verse says “the Word was WITH God”. The Word cannot be with God and be God at the same time; (2) verse 18 of John chapter 1 says “no man has seen God at any time”. Additionally, at Acts 28:6, it literally says (in the Greek) about Paul: “…they changed their mind and began saying he was God.” But because of the context it is always translated “a god”, just as it should be at John 1:1.
Lastly, no, Jehovah’s Witnesses are not a cult. All our beliefs are derived from them Bible.
In Australia we have a federal election coming on. We are told by some politicians that the only way to avoid climate catastrophe is to vote for a Labor government, which will most likely be influenced by the Greens in Parliament. What the climate alarmists won’t admit is the plain fact that no matter how pessimistic we are about the climate, the Australian Government can produce virtually no emissions-reducing effect on climate while large countries such as China and India and many others are likely to increase their emissions for years to come.
The old-fashioned trade-union-type socially-conservative decent people who once made up the Labor Party seem to be more and more replaced by socialist social-engineering pagan dictatorial politically-correct pains in the neck. I think there must be more than the usual amount of demonic activity going on around politics, even in more conservative parties (look at the pathetic British Government of the day- or the night).