Religion drives American attitudes toward evolution, according to a new study, but that’s not necessarily the case for climate change.
A recent study set out to discover whether religion factors into anti-science attitudes across the board. It found that while religious views drive Americans’ skepticism of evolution, climate change denial is more dependent on conservative political views and a lack of confidence in the scientific community.
The study, published by Rice sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund and several other researchers, found that about 20 percent of U.S. adults are skeptical that climate change is occurring or that humans play a role in it. Roughly 45 percent of the U.S. population believes evolution to be false.
Adherents of many religious traditions ― not including Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and members of other “non-Western” traditions ― as well as those who said they attend more frequent religious services were more likely to be skeptical of evolution than are those with no religious affiliation.
The only religion-related association the study found for climate skepticism was among evangelicals, who are more likely than the religiously unaffiliated to deny that climate change is occurring.
“If we compared two politically conservative individuals, one of whom holds a creationist view and the other who does not, there is no reason to predict that the former would be more likely to be a climate change skeptic, unless the individual is an Evangelical Protestant,” the study states.
A 2015 study by Pew Research Center found that 37 percent of white evangelicals ― more than any other Christian group or the religiously unaffiliated ― said there’s no solid evidence that the earth is getting warmer.
In 2013, Pew found that 64 percent of white evangelical Protestants ― compared to 33 percent of the overall public ― believed that humans have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.
In their report, Ecklund and fellow researchers suggested a path forward for concerned scholars, researchers and religious leaders who want to increase scientific literacy in religious communities.
First, they said, it’s important to separate climate change skepticism from evolution skepticism, as the two are not always correlated. Next, science advocates should enlist the help of religious leaders to increase overall interest and confidence in the scientific community ― which will act to reduce skepticism about both evolution and climate change.
“Science policy experts would do well to try to convince religious leaders of various types to advance science education and confidence in science among their constituents,” the study concludes.
