Belief in biblical end-times stifling climate change action in U.S.: study

[xchrom]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/01/belief-in-end-times-stifling-climate-change-action-in-u-s-study/



The United States has failed to take action to mitigate climate change thanks in part to the large number of religious Americans who believe the world has a set expiration date.

Research by David C. Barker of the University of Pittsburgh and David H. Bearce of the University of Colorado uncovered that belief in the biblical end-times was a motivating factor behind resistance to curbing climate change.

“[T]he fact that such an overwhelming percentage of Republican citizens profess a belief in the Second Coming (76 percent in 2006, according to our sample) suggests 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 their study, which will be published in the June issue of Political Science Quarterly.

The study, based on data from the 2007 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, uncovered that belief in the “Second Coming” of Jesus reduced the probability of strongly supporting government action on climate change by 12 percent when controlling for a number of demographic and cultural factors. When the effects of party affiliation, political ideology, and media distrust were removed from the analysis, the belief in the “Second Coming” increased this effect by almost 20 percent.

[napoleon_in_rags]

1. "Don't worry, God will never let that happen to us".

Direct quote from my conversation with an evangelical about climate change. He's got the hour and the day all planned out, along with many others like him.

How to fight this? Well, the whole ideology is of Jesus as this divine ass-wiper, who's job it is to clean up our shit when we've made a big mess of our environment, is selfish and theologically weak. Showcase that as what it is, show its moral depravity. Make people want to have their house in order (sustainable) for moral judgement at any time.

[Berlum]

3. "Don't blame me. You Repubbie ChristoFascists need to learn responsibility." - Gee Hovah

[napoleon_in_rags]

4. Lol. Oh you.

Yes, God will. Show us that the illusions we've put so much higher in the priority queue than being moral people are in fact flaws, which hurt all of us. If you look back at that old time religion, "fearing God", respecting that great unknown, used to be important. But now days, people pimp out His name as an excuse to shit all over the environment, and lay in complacency while the earth is destroyed for future generations. This thinking will have consequences, and these morons may not like them.

[Phillip McCleod]

41. how will 'god' do this? by what mechanism?

seems to me that it was *never* about 'respecting' the great unknown..

.. it was about CONQUERING IT.

whitewash religious sentiment all you want. fact is the conservative christians have a better claim on scripture than liberal believers do, though both must choose carefully which *cherries they pick*.

[napoleon_in_rags]

54. Have you ever tried to make a program to parse human language?

I have. You learn real fast that human language is nothing like a computer language. The magic is in the semantics - meaning comes from shared context, that's what makes it hard. Furthermore, humans take communications of others and re-context them. Especially with art, or mystical prose. So for one person, the song Hotel California is about the looney bin, for another its about cocaine addiction. People with shared contexts could reference the song to each other, with the other knowing what they mean, when in both contexts what they mean is different. The meaning comes from life experiences, which a computer program can never have. (not yet anyway)

Religion is a language:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. - John 1:1

Languages are the way people relate their experience about the world to each other. Its a way of thinking. So if I say something like those who act irresponsibly toward future generations because they believe end times are now will be punished by God, I'm basically making a statement within that language. I could make the same statement in secular language, and maybe it would make more sense to many here, but those people already know what I'm trying to say.

[Hayabusa]

52. I imagine Jesus coming down

and looking disappointed. "Now, we're not going anywhere until you clean this filthy place up!"

[Bernardo de La Paz]

21. Just like god never lets hurricanes, drought, or earthquakes happen? nt

[MountainLaurel]

31. "God promised never to flood the earth again"

"And I trust God more than scientists" was what I heard about an article discussing rising sea levels. From a teacher!

[Phillip McCleod]

42. 'senator' inhofe said something similar..

..once or twice or thrice or a mazillion times.

and idiots believe this shit.

[whistler162]

2. And in another story it is shown

Aardvarks will soon be the overlords of all humanity!

[djean111]

5. My born-again niece voted for Bush because he said he was against gay marriage.

I asked her about all the bad things he had done, the wars, etc. - and she said that did not matter because the end times are coming soon anyway.
Intelligent, she and her husband own a successful small business, own a big lovely home, active in church affairs, raising nice children.
We do not talk about religion or politics, because for me it is like talking to aliens who have learned to speak English - we may use the same words, but the thought processes and meanings are incomprehensible.

[mountain grammy]

23. My in laws are the same.. the end times are near.

They honestly believe this and believe the Republicans they vote for are the same as them. Jesus plus nothing.

[kestrel91316]

34. I have an old friend and a couple of cousins who are fundies.

They are all good, kind-hearted people. But they truly believe the fable, and see no reason to give a damn about the harm we are doing to this world. It's a gigantic blind spot for them.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

57. The finest minds of the 13th century:

[pampango]

6. "it was unlikely the United States would take action on climate change while so many Americans,

particularly Republicans, believed in the coming end-times."

“The fact that such an overwhelming percentage of Republican citizens profess a belief in the Second Coming (76 percent in 2006, according to our sample) suggests 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 their study, which will be published in the June issue of Political Science Quarterly.

Though the two researchers cautioned their study was not intended to predict future policy outcomes, they said their study suggested it was unlikely the United States would take action on climate change while so many Americans, particularly Republicans, believed in the coming end-times.

“That is, because of institutions such as the Electoral College, the winner-take-all representation mechanism, and the Senate filibuster, as well as the geographic distribution of partisanship to modern partisan polarization, minority interests often successfully block majority preferences,” Barker and Bearce wrote. “Thus, 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.”

Bad for the US but bad for the other 95% of the world's people since we produce 3 times as much carbon emissions per capita as the rest of the world.

[Zoeisright]

7. Yet another way religion has screwed over the world.

I am fucking sick of these illiterate idiots having an affect on policy. Just think about where we could be in terms of scientific and medical research if bible bangers minded their own fucking business. I'm convinced that math and physics are more advanced than biology because fundies are too stupid to understand those disciplines.

[Phillip McCleod]

43. i had to read that twice to grok it but yeh..

..if we add in the anti-evolution factor as an additional attraction to biological science.. and the fact that complexity breeds uncertainty and spontaneity such that organisms exhibit more unexpected and individualized behaviors than solar systems.. i'm in agreement. there is no newton's laws for biology. no wonder taxonomy is emphasized. 'look, that's different from this!' let's give them different names! that'll make it easier to explain stuff!

[KurtNYC]

8. Isn't reason number 1 money?

As in the fact that oil money runs the world?

Religion is merely the opiate which sedates (parts of ) the populace while the mega rich get mega richer.

[Soylent Brice]

19. agreed. n/t

[deutsey]

25. In some ways, money seems to have fostered a religion all its own

Complete with its own true-believing free market zealots.

[Blue_Tires]

32. +1

[raouldukelives]

38. Not just any religion either. A one world religion that bears no allegiance to any one country.

But controls all of them.

[Scootaloo]

9. Remember; their primary goal is to hurt other people

That's what conservativism is about, it's simply political-flavored sadism. This is just another example of it.

[treestar]

10. That goes against their own religion, in that we do not know when

is the day or the hour, etc. Top that off with selfishness, what of their own children and grandchildren? Horrid bastards.

[dawg]

11. The big money boys are the real problem.

The religious yahoos are just easily-manipulated idiots. If their "betters" were telling them that global warming was a real and dangerous thing, they would be all kinds of concerned.

(And they would justify that concern with all sorts of quotes from the Bible about stewardship, etc.)

[Newest Reality]

17. +1

[Phillip McCleod]

45. i don't think in a democracy that they are *just* useful idiots..

..they are usefully idiotic *voters*.

religion as a motivation for bad things happening in the world can't be so easily dismissed.

[MoreGOPoop]

58. Precisely

[Progressive dog]

12. 76%

I'm drinking myself into a stupor. 76%

[hatrack]

13. Fine, St. John ate the wrong mushroom and managed to pick up quill and vellum to write it down . . .

And we're still paying the Pied Pipers of the Apocalypse for some asshole's bad drug trip? Super.

[Phillip McCleod]

46. hah! haven't heard that one in a while..

..i take it you're an Allegrist then, rather than a Wassonian? (no wassonian would drag abrahamic religions into the fray)

[backscatter712]

14. Religion poisons everything!

In this case, literally.

[Skidmore]

15. It's not just stifling climate change action but

also fomenting political unrest and wars. It is a perniciously evil teaching.

[Phillip McCleod]

47. i have to say i can't disagree.

it's used as a justification for whatever one has already done, or wants to do.. *good or bad*

religion has *proven* itself to be a terrible path to collective ethical behavior.

truth is.. we haven't found that path yet.

[FarCenter]

16. What is new is the belief in the steady state

Lots of religions have an eschatology that involves the end of the world. For example, Ragnarök.

The modern belief that the world can be kept in approximately its current state is quite recent, and it is just as mythological and unrealistic.

The more realistic view is that things change. For example, large ice sheets covered the northern continents only 15000 years ago. Then they melted, ushering in the current climate, which is very unusual compared with the last 5 million years.

Humans are just as much a part of nature as anything else, and whatever we do to change it is part of the overall natural process.

[thesquanderer]

18. As George Carlin said, there's no reason to "save the planet."

"The planet is fine. The people are fucked."

http://vimeo.com/

enter 54241689 after the slash

[cprise]

20. Nihilism justifies ecocide

The ice sheets have not melted with anything like the speed that we are causing now and most species will not have a chance to adapt at this rate.

The way you employ the mantra of change is perverse; a platitude that exempts you from any responsibility and from changing the status quo.

[Crunchy Frog]

36. Just because death is a natural and inevitable process

it doesn't mean that murder is acceptable.

[Phillip McCleod]

48. lots of religions *do* have end of world ideas.

it's natural in ignorance to project one's archetypes onto the cosmos. the world was flat because *we* were 'flat'. the cosmos must die because *we* die..

..as above, so below.

WRONG.

not to anthropomorphize too much, but 'nature' is more creative than that.. the behavior of the extremely small is so different from that of the larger-than-a-half-atom that we still need two different theories to explain them both adequately.

..doesn't change our collective yearning for an ultimate theory of everything, which 'unifies' the utterly utterly complicated.

[FarCenter]

53. Not only do *we* die, but so do all other living creatures

And most of them die on a time frame that is easily observed by fairly long-lived humans. Humans were also well acquainted with death, since they frequently died of disease, accident, and battle. They hunted and killed game, and they observed predators killing their prey.

And on a longer time scale, epidemics, storms, famines, and wars carried away whole communities.

Therefore, the model of birth, growth, maturity, and death was a natural one to apply in religious thinking about humanity and its fate.

It still is.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

22. There is no place in heaven for people who trash God's green earth.

Napoleon_in_rags makes a good point about using their own morality to get them off the dime.

Say something like "There is no place in heaven for people who trash God's green earth." God could say your time is up at any moment, before the second coming. The warmest place in hell is reserved for those who would burn up god's creatures with man-made global warming. Are you willing to bet that the god's scientists are wrong about this?

[Ilsa]

24. Then we need to convince GOPers to stop

having children. If their faith in the End Times is so strong, then it would be immoral for them to bring more babies into the world.

[firenewt]

28. Beautiful solution. Give tax breaks for the childless. Anything to keep the assholes from

procreating.

[geek tragedy]

26. Those stupid fundy sheep are not the cause--Big Petroleum and its pawns in Congress are. nt

[tincanguy]

27. In search of GOLD!

How do they square this with the Christian concept of Stewardship! I think that every time Americans are faced with a challenge, rather than face it and buckle down and WORK to achieve an established result, we would rather go to a meeting (church?) and be told that there isn't much we can do so it must be the will of GOD. Always very convenient! The rest of the world however, would rather we get off of our dead asses and do something to reduce our over polluting footprint. I also think that the totally worthless Congress is probably a true reflection of the electorate, a collection of totally confused knuckle draggers in search of GOLD!

[Phillip McCleod]

49. the christian concept of stewardship is pretty weak.

they would simply dismiss it as a liberal reinterpretation of scripture.. which, frankly, it sorta is.

the bible's god doesn't demand that the chosen people practice good stewardship. he demands they *obey* and *conquer*.

[LeftinOH]

29. Remember Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, James Watt?

This anti-environmental stuff from "end-timers" goes back a long way.

Watt's attitude towards the environment: " "I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns." (direct quote).

[KrazyinKS]

30. May 2nd and its snowing!

I am from south central Kansas and a lifelong gardener. I have never seen this! Its snowing outside. So true belief end times stifles their rational thought. But somehow, someway we have to find a way to come together on this and quit the divisiveness. The issue is just too important.

[ruffburr]

33. If There was a-

Omnipotent and Just God There Would be no Republicans !

[Phillip McCleod]

50. ..or believers in gods.

just good people.

[Arugula Latte]

35. Fucking religion. Is there ANYTHING it doesn't destroy?

[Initech]

37. George Carlin was right: religion is the leading cause of death on this planet.

[RagAss]

39. Where the fuck is Jim Jones when we need him ?

[MrScorpio]

40. We have too many dumb assed mother fuckers running amok in this country

It's a crying shame.

[Skip Intro]

44. That's total bullshit.

This:

“the fact that such an overwhelming percentage of Republican citizens profess a belief in the Second Coming (76 percent in 2006, according to our sample) suggests that governmental attempts to curb greenhouse emissions would encounter stiff resistance..."

I'm pretty sure something like 99% of Christians believe in a Second Coming.

I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Christians don't seek to hasten the end-times by destroying the Earth, God's gift to man.

To suggest that Christianity on the whole hopes to screw the Earth up in order to hasten Jesus' return is a mind-blowingly absurd assertion.

[Phillip McCleod]

51. i'm sure you're right about the 99%..

..they probably misunderstood the question and thought the poll was asking if jesus was coming back *this year*.

[Quantess]

55. K & R

[Edim]

56. Big Money

is on the Global Warming bandwagon. It's a 'perfect crime'. This comes to mind:

"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is TELL THEM THEY ARE BEING ATTACKED, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. IT WORKS THE SAME IN ANY COUNTRY."