In politics, religion is an ineffective source of authority

There are many instances where religious belief dictates facts and reality despite contrary evidence of a "secular" nature. Over the centuries, the Christian religion has rejected all sorts of realities or facts that it later conceded were real, e.g., the Earth is not the center of the universe. Today a few Christians believe that the Earth is literally about 6,500 years old (link 1, link 2, link 3). Because of that and coupled with acceptance of the fact that dinosaurs existed, some Christians believe that humans and dinosaurs and humans existed at the same time (link 1, link 2). Concluding that the Earth is a few thousand years old or that dinosaurs and humans coexisted is a perception of reality grounded in religious faith and belief, not modern science.

If religious faith can lead people to believe things that compelling evidence says is not true, then how might religion affect politics when the evidence (reality) is less compelling? Consider, for example, climate change (discussed here before in a similar facts/reality vs. perception context), the impact of human activity on it and its potential severity.

Assume for the sake of argument, that something important in the Bible or Christian faith holds that Christian belief about the issue should come down on the side that says humans have no affect on climate change, it can't be affected and it is a mortal sin to even try to interfere with God's sacred intent. Also assume that that Christian driven belief comes to dominate politics and becomes official policy, the policy is ultimately proven wrong and the consequences are worse than catastrophic. Could that happen if this hypothetical were true? If not, why not?

Religious belief can lead some to believe that humans and dinosaurs literally coexisted. Given that, why can't religious belief lead some to believe that God does not want humans to interfere with global warming or advocate something else that reality says ought not to be done?

None of this is an attack on religion. Religion is an innate part of human beings. For addressing a person's spiritual needs, religion can be a great thing and can effectively serve that innate human need. A human need for religion simply needs to be acknowledged while minimizing its capacity to inflict damage on politics and political policy.

Religious beliefs are not the only source of distortion. Political ideology such as liberal and conservative ideology can and do distort reality. But in politics, devout religious belief is a more powerful source of distortion of fact and reality than pragmatism or political ideology. That can undeniably lead to flawed or ineffective political policy and waste. Compared to reliance on pragmatism or liberal or conservative ideology, religion is the worst source of political authority because it has the greatest power to distort reality.

A version of this with more context was posted earlier.