There are two broad categories of religions — admitted and disguised.

Admitted religions principally include Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.  Religions in disguise include environmentalism, Marxism, globalism, and greenism, as well as other isms too numerous to list.

Traditional religions don't hide the fact that they're religions.  They know they are belief systems based on faith.

Religions in disguise never admit to themselves and others that they are faith-based belief systems.  They self-identify as being "scientific" rather than faith-based.

Viewing themselves as non-religious is a central element of their worldview.  They are, in fact, extremely hostile to the concept of religion.  But when it comes to their own religions in disguise, they've morphed into the truest of true believers.  Irony of ironies, they've become what they hate.

Not being honest about their religiosity, even to themselves, forces them to live a lie.  The worst person you can lie to is yourself.

Disguised religions have many of the trappings of traditional religions, but they are grotesque caricatures of traditional religions.  They have all the bad aspects of regular religions and none of the good.  Traditional religions are primarily positive, while the disguised versions are primarily negative.  They are far more intolerant, doctrinaire, and dogmatic.

They even have their own versions of sacraments — abortion, wokism, and sustainability, for example.  Organic is their version of Kosher.  Recycling is their way of doing penance.  For them, producing, transporting, and using fossil fuels are sins.  Donald Trump is the devil.

The religions in disguise have an inconsistent attitude toward evil.  When it suits them, they deny that mass murderers and child-molesters are evil, but they have no problem believing that oil companies and Republicans are evil.

The disguised religions ridicule and ostracize anyone who doesn't share their doctrines.  When the COVID lockdowns became a kind of fanatical crusade, "non-vaxxers" lost jobs.  Masks became a modern "outward sign of inward grace."  They attempted to force conformity on the entire world.

The religions in disguise are fervently eschatological, more than Christianity ever was.  They truly believe that carbon dioxide will cook the planet and cause mass extinctions.

There's a propensity in human nature toward religion and a belief in God.  Denying religion and the existence of God is not a simple matter.  Nature abhors a vacuum, and that applies as well to human nature.

When you deny religion and the existence of God, that space wants to be filled — whence come environmentalism, Marxism, globalism, and all the other isms.  But there's a problem with those religions in disguise.  When you have no traditional god, you're left to become your own god.

Being your own god results in arrogance.  Contrast that with Christianity.  If you follow the Bible, you cannot be arrogant.   The Bible teaches humility and gratitude, as do most other traditional religions.

The religions in disguise have nothing that compares to the Ten Commandments of the Bible.  Those commandments are meant to make humans moral, humble, faithful, and honest.  The religions in disguise pay little attention to morality and no attention to honesty.

Our country's founders were primarily religious and Christian.  They were opposed to a state religion.  The Constitution they created included religious freedom.  That freedom is as vital today as the other freedoms — speech, assembly, right to bear arms, and freedom of the press.

The opening words in the First Amendment are "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."  Hundreds of billions of dollars have been expended by federal, state, and local governments because of environmentalism and the hysteria of climate change.  And it's not just the money they spend.  They do even more damage with the laws and regulations they force on us, such as trying to prevent us from enjoying the huge benefits of fossil fuels.  Being their own god is not enough for them.  They demand to be ours, too.  Once we have exposed the religions in disguise for what they are, it will be game over for them.

Ron Ross, Ph.D. is a former professor of economics and the author of The Unbeatable Market.  His website is rossecon.com.  He resides in Arcata, California and can be reached at rossecon@aol.com.

Image: Ryan Somma.