It's generally not that complicated, as pre-existing religions frequently pick up popular ideas of their eras and run with them. Often the many differences between two sects under the same umbrella are related to views on current popular ideas, leading to amusing and paradoxical conflicts.BRUTE wrote: @Dragline:
this is exactly what brute meant previously by "it's not enough to be right and on a moral high ground/horse". if one views religion as instilling unfounded faith in a group of humans because one knows better than they do, climate change needs to become a religion (under this definition) to be accepted by a majority of humans. and in a way, it already has. almost all the humans who believe in climate change didn't check the science, they just believed somebody who they trust. in this sense, most ideas that take off are religious in nature: communism, capitalism, democracy, pop music.
For example, under the umbrella of Christianity, you can find both sects that encourage the unbridled exploitation of nature and those that encourage conservation, often tied to popular economic or political theories that are of relatively recent vintage.
If you are interested in the parallels between secular ideologies and religions, I'd recommend some of the works of John Gray, particularly "Black Mass" described here: http://www.booksandideas.net/IMG/pdf/20 ... ehrent.pdf and "Economics as Religion" by Nelson: http://www.amazon.com/Economics-As-Reli ... 0271022841