The Dawn of a New Religion

We live in Exciting Times

We live in exciting times – participating in and observing the Dawn of a New Religion.

Besides being a Scientist, I also know a bit about at least one religion, the Universal Catholic Church:

• Received all the Sacraments (with the exception of Marriage, Ordination, and The Last Rights);

• Catholic Parochial grade school, where I was educated by Nuns and Priests, memorized the Catechism, served as an alter boy, and was “Confirmed”;

• St. Ignatius, a Jesuit High School, giving my religious education a nice intellectual spin; and, just to polish things off,

• The University of Notre Dame (though I didn’t play football); and for fun,

• Vacations to Trappist Monasteries and even to Mt. Athos (where one must not only be male but also have references to obtain a Visa).

Religion is based upon Belief in a Dogma (Models or Stores); testing is not necessary, and Skepticism is not especially encouraged (ask Galileo). On the other hand, Science is based upon DATA – the results of Measurements to test Hypotheses (Models or Stories). (DATA should never be confused with NUMBERS coming from Models or Stories).

At first I thought this New Religion was merely Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW), but it is more Inclusive, a Big Tent, which also certainly includes the CoVid-1984 Hysteria. I call this New Religion the “Follow the Science” (FtS for short) Religion.

Today we have Models (or Stories) masquerading as Science. The Models “look like Science” and have the trappings of Science, e.g., complicated graphs and equations, big words, and tools also used by scientists; things that can only be understood by the Clergy, but not the Laity; but they are just Models, NOT Science. Science is rather the practice gathering data to test Models. In the FtS Religion, one may not question the Model or Story, even with DATA ! The Story is assumed to be true, so consequently, even DATA that call the Story into question are not only suspect, but must be wrong and therefore discounted.

In subsequent posts I shall provide a few examples relating to the Dogma of Anthropogenic Global Warming and the Dogma of the CoVid-1984 Pandemic to illustrate:

• Instances of how Dogma always trumps DATA in the FtS Religion; and

• Instances of things purporting to be Science, that are not at all Science.

I can’t help but compare the new FtS Religion to the Catholic Religion. Catholicism is one of the world’s most successful religions. For almost two millennia is has had enormous Moral, Social, Economic, Political and even Scientific authority over a large swath of the earth’s population. The Catholic Church was officially established at the First Council of Nicaea convened by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325. The Nicene Creed is still today the official Creed of the Catholic and major Protestant religions. We might consider that the FtS AGW Church was officially established in 1990 with the publication of the First Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Using the Catholic Church as a Standard, I can begin to judge the FtS Religion, and I predict it to become one of the world’s most successful religions ever.

And, while the FtS Religion has the trappings of Science, it is NOT Science. I am consequently both a Heretic and an Apostate.

TimE.