The Pope’s call for climate action is more radical than you might think

After all, another recent study has found that evangelicals are also strongly opposed to space exploration! What’s more, they didn’t really know very much about space science – and that’s an important clue to what’s going on here.

Now take a look at this graphic:

It was made by Josh Resenau, at the US National Center for Science Education, and shows how the different religious denominations map out for acceptance of evolution and support for environmental regulations (the bigger circles simply indicate bigger groups).

You can see that there’s a pretty good correlation. The evangelicals and Mormons are at the bottom left, opposing both environmental legislation and rejecting evolution. The Catholics are in the middle there, and up at top right you have an eclectic group of agnostics, atheist, Buddhists and liberal Jews (the Orthodox Jews are way down, rubbing shoulders with the evangelical Christians).

What this suggests is that rejection of climate change, like rejection of space exploration, has nothing to do with theology and is in fact a manifestation of a deeper rejection of science.

So I think think rejection of climate change is in fact simply collateral damage from another target: evolution. Many Christians see evolution as a direct challenge to their beliefs, and therefore reject it.

But of course evolution is a well-validated scientific truth. So to reject evolution, these Christians have to paint a picture of scientists as biased and unreliable. And once you’ve gone down that path, it’s hardly surprising that all science – including climate science – get’s rejected. They throw the baby out with the bath water.

So that’s why the Pope’s encyclical is important – if a little late. And it’s why it goes hand in hand with a wider movement in the Vatican to embrace science (see: Science, Religion agree about global warming) .

Incidentally, if you want to read more on the topic of religion and climate change, check out this excellent article in the Washington Post by Chris Mooney.