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Religion and Global Warming

(Crossposted at Friendly Atheist)

The Pew Forum is a reliable source of interesting surveys. This most recent one shows how strongly various religious groups believe that global warming is occurring and if so, whether the warming is caused by humans or not.

One number that does puzzle me is the 36% of Black Protestants who believe the Earth is warming, but due to natural patterns and not human activity. It’s twice that of the US population as a whole, and triple that of the unaffiliated. Why would that be?

But otherwise, the findings don’t surprise me. The most likely group to believe that humans are causing a global warming? Those unaffiliated with a religion, at 58%. Those least likely? The self-identified White evangelical Protestants, at 34%.

I’m guessing there are confounding factors – White evangelical Protestants are more likely to live in the South, so perhaps it’s their geographic location that causes them not to believe the Earth is warming instead of their faith. It’s a classic correlation vs. causation conundrum.

But I don’t think we can dismiss the notion that faith affects people’s environmental views. Not when we have examples like Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) who read from Genesis in a congressional hearing and proclaimed that “The Earth will end only when God declares it is time to be over. Man will not destroy this Earth, this Earth will not be destroyed by a flood.”

On the other hand, we have to ask: why are these Hong Kong Christians building a full-scale replica of the ark?

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This entry was posted by admin on April 17, 2009 at 4:13 pm and is filed under Domestic Issues, Environment, General, Health & Science, Religious "Wrong", Separation of Religion and Government. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
  • BFBF

    Black Protestants…Why would that be?

    Black people have always been in touch with nature.

  • http://boredbeyondbelief.wordpress.com Joe G.

    I suspect that the majority of black Protestants are also evangelical. Although they might be more liberal (i.e. race, class) on some social issues, they are none the less evangelical in their belief systems.

  • Donald Eckhardt

    This question didn’t allow the response,

  • http://www.compatibleink.info Hayden Robertson

    In reality, no single religion could guarantee us a place in Heaven. In the end, what matters is how we a treat other people.;*,

  • http://www.resistorcolorcode.net Holly Martin

    there are lots of social issues that we face these days due to hardships and disease.-*”

  • http://www.beautifulboobs.org Alexandra Cooper

    actually it doesn’t matter what Religion you may have, as long as you treat the other person right.,-”

  • http://www.dryscalptreatment.info Kyle Bailey

    there are lots of social issues these days mostly due to our culture and economic situation””

  • http://www.bathtowelstoiletry.com Jay Hunt

    it doesn’t matter what religion you have, just do good and avoid evil,:,

  • http://www.constipationremedieslab.com Constipation Remedies 

    it does not matter what religion you have, just do good things on this world,”-

  • http://www.bodydetoxdiet.net Detox Diet 

    social issues these days are quite complicated and often involves politics,;~

  • http://www.eyelet-curtains.org Eyelet Curtains 

    i think that global warming could slow down in the future due to the steps that we are doing**.

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    religion is a good thing since this is our only connection to a higher being*’”

  • http://www.electricblanketslab.com Electric Blankets ·

    global warming is a disaster that we should avoid at all cost but i am afraid that we are too late already `