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Tuesday 24 July 2012

The real sky fairy

This may be a tongue-in-cheek post, but the point is worth probing I think.

Some atheists have a tendency to refer to God as the sky fairy. Why I don’t know, because it hardly makes for a constructive debate. However, there may be a touch of jealousy behind the jibe because many atheists have a sky fairy of their own. They call her climate - or maybe that should be Climate? So what is the Climate sky fairy all about?

  • She has her clerics in the guise of climate scientists.
  • She has her synods such as COP17.
  • She has her theology in the guise of climate science.
  • She has her holy texts such as IPCC reports.
  • She has her apocalyptic predictions.
  • She has her threats against the unbeliever.
  • She has her lay preachers.
  • She has her parables and morality tales.
  • She has her sects such as Greenpeace and WWF.
  • She has her gurus.
  • She has her laws.
  • She has her official totems such as wind turbines and the colour green.
  • She has her lay totems such as the Toyota Prius and solar panels.
  • She has her apostates such as James Lovelock.
  • She has her sacrifices such as the poor and elderly.
  • She has her acts of atonement – the Toyota Prius again.
  • She has her indulgences in carbon offsets.
  • She has her tithes such as carbon taxes and solar subsidies.
  • She has her TV preachers.
  • She has her apologists.
  • She has her celebrity worshippers.
  • She has her political backers.
  • She has her own political parties.
  • She has her fingers in big business.

All in all she is a thoroughly modern sky fairy. Climate worship may lack the theological sophistication and moral dimension of our Judeo-Christian traditions, but Climate is a primitive god, her followers raw and unsophisticated in the ways of thinking – especially thinking more than once.

Rational folk should tread carefully, for she is a vengeful god and the ways of reason are not her ways. Green in tooth and claw, we see her power in the swivel-eyed gaze of true believers.

8 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

That's a bit harsh, to assume that all atheists are green sky faerie worshippers.

I'm an atheist (or agnostic or unbeliever or whatever they want to call me, I couldn't care less) and I don't believe much in all this catastrophic climate change etc either (so I suppose they would label me a 'climate sceptic' or 'climate denier' or whatever they want to call me, I couldn't care less').

A K Haart said...

Mark - not all atheists, but many atheists and particularly climate believers make too much of their supposed rationalism.

Woodsy42 said...

What's with this sexist attitude, maybe it's a he?

A K Haart said...

Woodsy - I left it a little ambivalent by calling her a god rather than a goddess.

Mark Wadsworth said...

W42, the Christian-Jewish-Muslim god is normally assumed to be male but Gaia-Earth Mother-Green Skye Faerie is usually assumed to be female.

Woodsy42 said...

I know Mark - but we have mandatory gender equality nowadays.

James Higham said...

However, there may be a touch of jealousy behind the jibe because many atheists have a sky fairy of their own. They call her climate

[Chuckles quietly to himself]

A K Haart said...

James - I chuckled when I posted it!