Religion and Climate Change Denial

I have long suspected there was a link between religion and climate change denial, but I have never been able to find detailed evidence of it. The way I figured it, religion is the cause for people to reject science when it comes to evolution. I frequently find people who reject evolution also reject climate change. Ergo, there is a link between religious beliefs and climate change denial.

Well, someone finally did the work to establish exactly how religion factors in to beliefs on both evolution and climate change. Here is a plot of his work:

Source: Josh Rosenau

The lower area on the chart represents less support for climate change. Likewise, the left side represents less support for evolution. What strikes me very quickly is the way this makes a horizontal band from lower left to upper right (with a few exceptions). In other words, for the majority of people, their acceptance of evolution correlates well with their acceptance of climate change.

Now, the author makes a very important point, one that I share. This chart is addressing religions in general and not specific people. How an individual feels about evolution and climate change is unique to them and they shouldn't be judged by something like this chart. In fact, I remember one of the most knowledgeable individuals I ever had discussions with on evolution was a friend who also happened to be a Baptist minister. He was very supportive of it and saw no conflict between the science and his religious beliefs. But, if you look at the chart, Baptist is way down towards the lower left (I never asked him how his congregation felt about his beliefs).

This is a nice piece of work and one more tool in our fight to overcome the work of the denier lobbyists.