Christian Fundamentalists vs Climate Change

In a study titled ?End-Times Theology, the Shadow of the Future, and Public Resistance to Addressing Global Climate Change,? David C. Barker of the University of Pittsburgh and David H. Bearce of the University of Colorado disclosed that belief in the apocalypse and the second coming were motivating factors behind the opposition to curbing climate change.? Barker and Bearce claim that Christian fundamentalists, believing the end of days are near, ?often resist policies trading short-term costs for hypothetical long-term benefits.?

Image Credit: The Raw Story
Image Credit: The Raw Story

?The fact that such an overwhelming percentage of Republican citizens profess a belief in the Second Coming means that governmental attempts to curb greenhouse emissions would encounter stiff resistance even if every Democrat in the country wanted to curb them,? Barker and Bearce wrote in the study.

Another study shows that citizens who believe in the “end times” also believe that scientists are correct about global climate change, but those people dually believe an end will only occur if it’s God’s divine will for mankind to be destroyed. And, any change that could be made to curb climate change does nothing to change God’s eternal plan for mankind.

The chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy, Rep. John Shimkus, shares in the expressed sentiment. In 2010 he said that he opposed action toward curbing climate change because ?the Earth will end only when God declares it to be over.?

According to the researchers, the results of the study indicate that the U.S. would probably not be taking any action on climate change when so many of its citizens, particularly Republicans, believed in the impending end of days, as reported by Raw Story.

Barker and Bearce wrote, ?Even if the median voter supports policies designed to slow global warming, legislation to effect such change could find itself dead on arrival if the median Republican voter strongly resists public policy environmentalism at least in part because of end-times beliefs.?

Edited by: AEK

Published by: CB

I am a liberal from the overly conservative state of North Carolina, and to make a bigger distinction, I am a Secular Humanist. My goal is to objectively study and relay information in the pursuit of enlightenment; to confront and persuade people away from the pervasive ignorance of inequality. I aim to understand and appreciate all basic values in hopes to form a mutual understanding between my fellow women and men.