Association of Religious End Time Beliefs with Attitudes toward Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss

Benjamin S. Lowe (), Susan K. Jacobson, Glenn D. Israel and Anna L. Peterson
Additional contact information
Benjamin S. Lowe: Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Susan K. Jacobson: Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Glenn D. Israel: Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Anna L. Peterson: Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 11, 1-16

Abstract: Mobilizing communities for environmental sustainability often involves engaging with religious values and beliefs, which can exert powerful influences on the attitudes, norms, and behaviors of the majority of people worldwide. Christianity is the largest world religion and, in some contexts, has also been among the most skeptical of climate and environmental concerns. A popular explanation for this skepticism focuses on eschatological views (i.e., end time beliefs) and posits that if the earth is going to be destroyed someday, there is little point in conserving it now. Empirical evidence is lacking, however, on the extent to which such beliefs actually influence environmental attitudes. We surveyed Christian undergraduate students in the US (N = 1520) and found that belief in the imminent return of Jesus Christ was not significantly associated with variables tested regarding biodiversity loss or climate change. Furthermore, a plurality responded that the earth will be renewed at the end (43%), not destroyed (24%), and beliefs about the fate of the earth were generally not related to attitudinal measures—except for a slim minority of respondents with strongest views that the earth will be destroyed—but were significantly associated with political ideology and literalist views of Scripture. These findings suggest that end time views may not be a major obstacle—at least among younger American Christians—to promoting socio-ecological sustainability.

Keywords: American evangelicals; biblical literalism; Christianity; eschatology; Generation Z; global warming; political ideology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/11/9071/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/11/9071/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:11:p:9071-:d:1163546

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().