No intelligent person loathes an empirical matter as an idea; regardless of what you think of these people or what they think of themselves, such people are actually quite stupid.

“and almost all intelligent green-minded or lefty people love it”

Such people are likewise stupid, but your claim is grossly dishonest and in error — the vast majority of people who accept AGW do so with great reluctance as a result of the science directly or as stated by 97% of climate scientists and every reputable scientific organization in the world.

“Mike Hulme, for instance, declared himself to be a fan of government action because he believed in merits of government interference.”

No intelligent person forms conclusions from a sample space of one element.

Hardly a secular religion at all. It’s very much a full-blown religion with links to some quite ancient entities as mentioned in the post “let me introduce myself”.