6/3/2006 8:15:48 PM
"When secular people warn of global warming, environmental disaster, nuclear war, plagues, bird flu, tsunamis, it's ok. Secular people admire the same statement if made by a secular source, but laugh at it if made by a religous source."
Feel free to laugh at both. It's all just fear-mongering for a purpose. In the case of the religious, it's a way to increase church attendance. In the case of secular Noahs, it's an attempt to increase funding for their particular pet project.
If modern hearers are more likely to give credence to secular sources, maybe that's because the secular priesthood bases its claims on "facts and figure" (real or imagined) whereas religion is based on what some guy in sandals heard while hiding out in a cave.