My experience of this goes back over fifty years. A family in our neighborhood belonged to a tiny fundamentalist non-denominational Christian church. Because they took the Bible literally they had to deny the physics (the weak nuclear force) of radiometric dating of rock which tells us the Earth is over four billion years old.
Because of that they had to deny almost all other science as well. We had just landed on the Moon and they denied it was real. The whole thing was a studio production. The rocket didn't have any men on board. The fuzzy television video was proof of the spoof. The high qualify film the astronauts brought back was all fake and so on ad nauseam. Oh and no hole in the ozone layer. Guess they didn't want to give up their spray-on deodorant. Turns out they didn't have to because other propellants were substituted.
I felt sorry for their kids whom they homeschooled or sent to Christian schools. Those kids grew up and had kids and grandkids. Last I heard they were all still Christian fundamentalists and young Earth believers. All conservative Republicans.
So much of this crap is on religion. Climate deniers. Covid deniers. Flat Earthers. Conspiracy nuts. I fear there are more of them than ever. Social media is a megaphone for their message. Because most of it is religious it's also political.
A lot of it goes to science illiteracy. When I was in college I was stunned to learn only 5% of us were pure science majors.
It's fine to think critically and question science but how good is one's criticism if one knows little or nothing of the issue?