God, Oil, and the Great American Climate Lie
Where faith, politics, and profit unite to call pollution a blessing and science a sin.
Climate change is real. The science is beyond dispute. Over 99 percent of climate scientists worldwide agree that humans are heating the planet, mostly through burning fossil fuels. You don’t need faith for this—just a thermometer. Carbon dioxide levels are the highest they’ve been in 800,000 years. Glaciers are melting, oceans are rising, and heat waves now break records like they’re trying to win an award.
Yet somehow, one group keeps shouting that it’s all fake news: fundamentalist Christians, mostly in the United States, who think climate science is a left-wing conspiracy sent by Satan to ruin their gas-guzzling freedom.
“God’s in Control” — The Lazy Excuse
Whenever you bring up climate change to a fundamentalist, you’ll hear the same tired line: “God controls the weather, not man.”
It’s the theological version of saying, “Not my problem.” They wave Genesis 8:22 like a flag: “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter… will never cease.”
In their minds, that means God personally manages the thermostat, so humans couldn’t possibly affect the climate. But Genesis 2:15 says, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” That sounds like responsibility—not permission to pollute.
Yet fundamentalists twist “God’s control” into a divine warranty that excuses everything from deforestation to oil drilling. They act like God’s their cleanup crew.
“Fundamentalist Christian faith may even encourage individuals to welcome growing environmental problems as positive signs of the Second Coming.”
— Aimie L. B. Hope & Christopher R. Jones, The Impact of Religious Faith on Attitudes to Environmental Issues
The Apocalypse Gets in the Way
A big part of the denial problem is that many fundamentalists don’t expect the planet to last much longer. Why bother protecting Earth if you think Jesus is about to destroy it anyway?
According to a 2010 Pew Research poll, 41 percent of Americans thought Jesus would return by 2050. Among white evangelicals, the number was even higher. If you believe the end is around the corner, reducing carbon emissions sounds like rearranging furniture before a tornado.
This “rapture logic” is fatalism dressed up as prophecy. If the world’s ending soon, you can justify anything: pollution, extinction, even war. Every disaster becomes “biblical,” not man-made. Wildfire? God’s wrath. Drought? Signs of the end times. Melting ice caps? Maybe that’s Revelation 8:8.
“Statistically speaking, American Evangelical Christians are uniquely attracted to apocalyptic conspiracy theories when it comes to the topic of climate change.”
— Aaron Ricker, Crisis, Conspiracy, and Community in Evangelical Climate Denial
The Real God — Big Oil
This fight isn’t really about theology. It’s about cash.
In 2015, The Guardian revealed that ExxonMobil and Koch Industries poured hundreds of millions of dollars into think tanks, lobbying groups, and even Christian “ministries” that deny climate science. One of the worst offenders is the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation—a so-called “Christian” organization that calls fossil fuels a gift from God.
Their spokesmen aren’t scientists—they’re pastors with corporate donors. The formula is simple: if you can’t convince people with data, convince them with doctrine.
When your preacher starts sounding like an Exxon PR manager, maybe it’s time to ask who’s really writing the sermon notes.
Science = Satan (Apparently)
Fundamentalist Christianity has always had a chip on its shoulder about science.
Evolution? Rejected.
The Big Bang? Mocked.
Geology, astronomy, and sometimes even medicine? “Fake news.”
To admit climate science is real would mean admitting the Bible isn’t a physics textbook. And that’s terrifying for people whose entire worldview depends on pretending every word is literal truth.
A 2021 study by the Public Religion Research Institute found that only 31 percent of white evangelical Protestants believe climate change is caused by humans—the lowest of any major U.S. religious group.
These are the same people who use GPS, take antibiotics, and heat their homes with technology made possible by science. But mention “carbon emissions,” and suddenly they transform into experts with theology degrees from Facebook University.
“The marriage of apocalyptic imagination and conspiracy-theory thinking constitutes a strange and dangerous kind of normalcy.”
— Aaron Ricker, Crisis, Conspiracy, and Community in Evangelical Climate Denial
Jesus Is a Republican Now
Climate denial isn’t about faith—it’s about tribe.
In America, religion and conservative politics have merged so tightly that rejecting climate change is now a loyalty test.
In 2020, 76 percent of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump, a man who called climate change a “hoax” and gutted environmental protections.
For fundamentalists, accepting climate science would mean agreeing with scientists, environmentalists, and—worst of all—Democrats. So they don’t. Not because of facts, but because of team colors.
If a pastor preaches renewable energy, he risks losing half his congregation and his radio sponsors. If a believer admits the planet’s heating up, they’ll be accused of betraying both God and country.
So they stay quiet—or they double down. Denial becomes faith.
Weaponizing the Bible
Fundamentalists quote scripture like lawyers defending pollution in God’s court.
When they read Genesis 8:22, they see “cold and heat, summer and winter will never cease,” and claim it disproves global warming. That verse was written by people who didn’t even know the planet was round. Using it to dismiss modern climate science is like using Leviticus to build a rocket engine.
The Bible is not an environmental policy manual. It’s poetry and myth, not a meteorological model. But fundamentalists can’t let go of literalism. They’d rather see the world burn than admit their holy book doesn’t predict carbon levels.
When your faith needs to fight physics, it’s not faith anymore—it’s superstition with a lobbyist.
Not All Christians Are the Problem
To be fair, many Christians actually care deeply about the planet.
In 2015, Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ urged Catholics to take climate change seriously and move away from fossil fuels. Mainline Protestant groups like the United Methodist Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church have done the same.
Even some evangelicals are trying to fix the damage. The Evangelical Environmental Network frames climate action as a moral duty.
“Katharine Hayhoe cultivates an evangelical ethos … that asks resistant publics to recognize climate action as belonging to the landscape of their faith.”
— Von Bergen et al., Talking Climate Faith
But these voices are drowned out by the louder, richer, and angrier Christian Right—one that confuses arrogance with righteousness and ignorance with holiness.
When Ignorance Becomes Identity
Fundamentalist Christianity thrives on opposition. It needs enemies to survive—science, secularism, feminism, LGBTQ rights, and now climate activism. Every disagreement is cast as spiritual warfare.
So when scientists warn about rising temperatures, fundamentalists don’t hear “we’re destroying the planet.” They hear “they’re attacking God.”
That’s why no amount of data will change their minds. Their identity depends on rejecting it. Accepting the science would mean admitting they’ve been wrong for decades—and that’s too much for people raised to think doubt equals sin.
The tragic irony is that their defiance doesn’t hurt scientists. It hurts everyone else.
The Manipulation Machine
Fundamentalists are the perfect audience for manipulation: distrustful of experts, loyal to authority, allergic to nuance. Once you convince them that science is Satan’s lie, you can sell them anything.
Climate change is fake? Sure.
Vaccines are evil? Amen.
Oil executives are Christian heroes? Hallelujah.
It’s not even subtle. Right-wing media, megachurch pastors, and corporate donors use the same emotional playbook: fear, persecution, and divine duty. The goal isn’t to convert—it’s to control.
They’ve turned blind faith into a business model where believing nonsense proves devotion. And as long as that works, the planet stays collateral damage.
Climate Deniers Are Everywhere — But America Made It a Movement
Climate deniers aren’t unique to one country. You’ll find them in Britain, Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic — small but stubborn groups who still think melting glaciers are a “natural cycle.” But none of them hold the kind of power or self-confidence that American deniers do.
The reason’s simple: in the United States, facts became opinions, and opinions became rights. The culture of “free speech” — one of America’s greatest strengths — has also become its greatest loophole for nonsense. Anyone can say anything, and somehow every claim demands equal respect, whether it’s from a Nobel-winning scientist or a guy shouting on AM radio about chemtrails.
In most democracies, freedom of speech protects truth from censorship. In America, it often protects falsehood from consequence. Climate denial became not just an opinion but an identity — something you wear proudly at rallies, post on Facebook, or shout at school board meetings. It’s no longer about data; it’s about defiance.
That’s why American climate deniers are so influential: they turned disbelief into a culture war. When a scientific consensus threatens their worldview, they don’t argue evidence — they argue freedom. And when every opinion is treated as “just as valid,” the loudest voice wins, not the most informed one.
As a result, what started as a fringe conspiracy became mainstream politics. The U.S. exported denial like a commodity — through media, think tanks, and politicians — until half the world started doubting what satellites can measure and glaciers can prove.
Last Thoughts
Climate denial among fundamentalist Christians isn’t about science or scripture. It’s about identity, power, and control. It’s about clinging to a world where they’re always right, God’s always on their side, and Earth exists to serve them until Judgment Day.
But belief doesn’t rewrite physics. Bible verses won’t lower temperatures. Prayers won’t pull carbon out of the air.
If your religion requires you to ignore evidence, your problem isn’t disbelief—it’s denial.
The Earth doesn’t care about theology. It runs on chemistry, not creed. And when the last glacier melts, it won’t matter whether you quoted Genesis or ExxonMobil.
If you claim to love God, start by respecting His creation. Because if faith keeps blinding you to the fire, don’t be surprised when the smoke starts looking like hell.
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Sources and Further Reading
Greater than 99% consensus on human-caused climate change in the peer-reviewed scientific literature
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355458046_Greater_than_99_consensus_on_human_caused_climate_change_in_the_peer-reviewed_scientific_literatureScientific consensus on climate change
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_consensus_on_climate_changeEvangelical clergy largely deny human causes of climate change
https://baptistnews.com/article/evangelical-clergy-largely-deny-human-causes-of-climate-change/The Faithful Skeptics: Evangelical Religious Beliefs and Perceptions of Climate Change
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274306776_The_Faithful_Skeptics_Evangelical_Religious_Beliefs_and_Perceptions_of_Climate_ChangeClimate change denial
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_denialHow Fossil Fuel Money Made Climate Change Denial the Word of God
https://advancedbiofuelsusa.info/how-fossil-fuel-money-made-climate-change-denial-the-word-of-godSidebar: Involvement by religious groups in debates over climate change
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/11/17/sidebar-involvement-by-religious-groups-in-debates-over-climate-change/Laudato Si Summary
https://capp-usa.org/2025/03/laudato-si-summary/Mission & History: Who We Are - The Evangelical Environmental Network
https://creationcare.org/who-we-are/mission.htmlDenial, Disinformation, and Doublespeak — Big Oil’s Evolving Efforts to Avoid Accountability for Climate Change
https://www.budget.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fossil_fuel_report1.pdf
The Cornwall Alliance funding is a perfect case study in how ExxonMobil weaponized religion to manufacture doubt on climate sciense. By routing money through faith based organizations, they turned scientific consensus into a culture war where denying climate change became a test of Christian identity. The strategy was brilliant from a PR standpoint becuase it's much harder to debunk a preacher than a lobbyist when talking to evangelical audiences. This same playbook got exported globally and now we're stuck with millions who think accepting basic physics somehow threatens their faith.
Fundamentalists make God the scapegoat for everything, allowing them no responsibility for their actions and deeds.