[cornelis]

That's a worthwile discussion, but hardly an excuse to be fallacious.

There is no doubt that even religious people are prone to impose certainty for the sake of banishing the fear of our limited knowledge. And if environmentalists shouldn't make this kind of error, where does Crighton obtain the priviledge to call this error religious? Crighton commits a fault and he should be called on it.

[liberallarry]

You can - rightly - criticize Crichton for characterizing rigid and intolerant insistance upon the "truth" of one's beliefs as "religious". But it's not his error alone. Too often, that's the way of the secular world. It will take some work to undo it.