Al Gore preaches hellfire and damnation
By Henry Lamb
web posted June 5, 2006
Most people on the planet believe in some form of an afterlife. Religion is the term that embraces the theology that sets forth the process through which mere mortals may secure a utopian existence in the afterlife. The gateway through which mortals must pass in order to experience this afterlife is belief: acceptance of, and commitment to, the theology offered by a particular religion.
Christian doctrine, for example, requires belief in an omnipotent Creator, manifested in human form through a virgin birth, who, as a human, was crucified, but was miraculously resurrected.
There is no way to prove, positively, that acceptance of, and commitment to the Christian theology will insure the utopian afterlife. It is "faith" in the theology that has compelled people to Christendom over the millennia. Once acceptance of the theology has occurred, commitment to the theology is demonstrated by adherence to a laundry list of behavioral guidelines.
Al Gore has reduced the science of global climate to a religion constructed on the theology of global warming.
There is no way to prove, positively, that acceptance of, and commitment to Al Gore's theology of global warming will insure the utopian ecological future he envisions. It is simply "faith" that compels people to accept Gore's claims, and commit to the laundry list of behavioral guidelines he prescribes. Unless, of course, Al Gore's behavioral guidelines are translated into law.
Throughout history, the greatest obstacle to human progress has been government-imposed theology. Galileo's imprisonment; the crusades; and the Spanish Inquisition are examples at least as repulsive as the Taliban's ongoing repression of women and all things not Muslim.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits government from imposing religious beliefs on anyone, and more specifically, it prohibits forcing individual behavior based on religious belief. The courts have bent over backwards in recent years to see that public policy neither mandates, nor even allows certain behaviors that may be interpreted as "Christian."
The American system of government encourages individuals to embrace and practice whatever religion they choose, but it absolutely forbids government imposition of any behavior based on any religion. This is why Al Gore pretends that his religion is not a religion, that his laundry-list of behavioral guidelines are demanded by science.
Science, however, is rarely certain, and always welcomes challenge. Al Gore claims that the science of global warming is "settled." He ignores the growing number of studies that contradict his conclusions, and he demeans scientists who dare to challenge the findings he says are gospel.
Al Gore wants government to impose a laundry list of behavioral guidelines based on his global warming theology. He wants to convert the U.S., and the world, to his religion. In this goal, his aspiration is the same as Osama bin Laden's: to force everyone to behave as he thinks they should.
Al Gore is winning converts, not because of the validity of his theology, but because his sales pitch promises hell-fire and damnation for the infidels, and produces profits for the priests of his religion.
Dante's Inferno provided a graphic image of the afterlife for infidels in an earlier era, which brought converts in droves to the altar. Gore rounds up converts by using images of glaciers melting, and video clips of hurricane devastation, offered as graphic "proof" of the hell that awaits an unrepentant civilization. He conveniently ignores the truth that in other parts of the world glaciers are actually expanding, and that storms of even greater devastation occurred routinely long before his global warming theology was invented.
Al Gore, and his priesthood, demean and impugn the credibility of scientists who dare challenge the global warming theology, by claiming that dissenters are on the payroll of the oil industry - and worse. He conveniently ignores the truth that the global warming priesthood is on the payroll of the global warming industry. The U.S. government, European governments, and the United Nations have spent billions of dollars in recent years to "study" global warming. For nearly two decades, however, these funds have gone primarily to researchers and organizations that advance the global warming theology. Dr. Richard Lindzen, Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT, says:
"Scientists who dissent from the [global warming] alarmism have seen their grant funds disappear, their work derided, and themselves libeled as industry stooges, scientific hacks, or worse. Consequently, lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of the science that supposedly is their basis."
Al Gore's global warming theology is not science; it is his religion. He is welcome to believe whatever he wishes, but neither he, nor his priesthood, has the right to expect government to impose his laundry-list of behavioral guidelines on the rest of society.
Americans who would rebel at the prospects of a theocratic government imposing the behavioral guidelines of Islam or Christianity, should rebel with equal vigor at the prospects of government imposing individual behavioral requirements based on Al Gore's global warming religion. 
Henry Lamb is the executive vice president of the Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO), and chairman of Sovereignty International.