I think you have three somewhat separate but overlapping phenomena going on, not a simple repudiation of science and education.
On one hand, you have the pandering of the party to business interests that see things like AGW as a business threat, so they go against it, despite all legitimate scientific thought indicating that it’s a real thing.
The other one is more a matter of cultivating an aggressively populist mentality among voters that’s anti-elite/anti-intellectual. They’ve sort of basically told the Republican rank-and-file that their notions about things are valid, and that they don’t need any egghead professors or their like telling them what to do or how things should be done, and that their views on things are just as valid. So you get dumbasses posting the same stupid things on Facebook everytime there’s a snowstorm about “What about global warming now?”, and the Republican party telling this dude that his ignorant skepticism is perfectly valid.
On the gripping hand, the swallowing of the Christian Right agenda hook, line and sinker means that they have to pay a pretty fair amount of at least lip service to those beliefs, and combined with the prior two points, you get a party that basically turns a blind eye to science and rational thought when it comes to party platforms and ignorant, lunatic candidates.