(promoted from a rant in comments)
I have been thinking recently of the whys and wherefores of climate change deniers and evolution deniers, and the general problem of people who have a magical belief system instead of looking at the evidence before us.
The scary part to a lot of people, I think, is that both of these things suggest mortality of both the individual and species. We know the human species will end, whether it's when the sun dies out a few billion years hence or tomorrow from some human-induced catastrophe, it's just a matter of when. If people don't really have a strong enough faith or psyche to handle it without a religious structure to prop up their daily lives, it's a real downer.
The flip side is there's an inherent lack of faith in this position in humanity itself to change the game plan on its own. If some invisible entity is controlling everything, why, we don't have to be responsible for our own screw-ups. It's fatalism, resignation, and a lack of confidence in our own ability to shape our own destiny.