What Do Christians Have Against Climate Science?

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Since then, Hayhoe has been flooded with dozens of angry emails from climate change deniers, many of which question her professed Christian faith.

As evidenced by the nation's intense political debate on the issue, Americans are less likely to attribute global warming to human activities than other nations. In April 2011, a Gallup survey found that only 34 percent of U.S. residents believe global warming is the result of human activities such as excessive consumption of fossil fuels, compared with 54 percent of Canadians, 56 percent of Latin American respondents and 76 percent of respondents living in developed Asian countries.

Evangelical Christian voters have become one of the biggest conservative demographics that either question or reject the idea that human activity is affecting climate change. An analysis of 2008 polling data from the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life showed that 47 percent of the general U.S. population believe there is evidence that human actions are causing an increase of Earth's temperature, a belief shared by a comparable number of mainline Protestants (48 percent), Catholics (44 percent). Evangelical Protestants were not only the least likely to attribute global warming to human actions (34 percent), but also the largest group to flatly say there is no scientific proof to validate the theory.

A 2011 survey of 1,000 randomly selected pastors from the Christian research organization LifeWay concluded that few Protestant church leaders believe global warming is real and that humans are responsible for the phenomenon. According to the data, evangelical pastors were the most skeptical, with 68 percent of respondents disagreeing with the statement that global warming is real and manmade, compared with 45 percent of mainline pastors.

How is it possible that so many Christian conservatives deny even the possibility that human-made pollution is harming the planet? Is the idea that humanity could make such a major impact on Earth -- one that some have described as rivaling the power of a god -- responsible for the divide?

The answer, says Hayhoe, is no. In fact, as someone who lives between the worlds of reverent Christianity and hard science, she regards theology as the least of the reason.

Global Warming Seen as Part of Liberal Agenda

"Some say God gave the earth to mankind to do as they please and may even think, 'Well, that's not how the Rapture is supposed to happen -- so be it!' But, that is by no means the majority," Hayhoe said, emphasizing that most evangelical Christians don't use theology to justify their suspicions about climate change.