I was browsing RedState today and I noticed an advertisement for the National Geographicspecial on the Neandertal genome. At first I was surprised at the appearance of this on a right-wing website; after all, there is a bias toward Creationism on the modern American Right. Then I realized that the ad was probably part of a network and RedState was just one of many sites which were automatically included in some package. Nevertheless, it got me thinking about the Right and Creationism. Why is there this association on a deeper level? A survey from several years back showed that in Europe there was little correlation between right-wing politics and Creationism. I'm sure most of you have a good idea about why you see the association here in the United States, but I wanted to check with the GSS. Catholics, Jews and those with no religion. Politics Left to Right from the left to right on X axis:
Protestants. Politics Left to Right from the left to right on X axis:
Everyone who doesn't know for sure that God exists; i.e., from those who don't believe to those who believe but with some doubts. Politics Left to Right from the left to right on X axis:
Everyone who knows for sure that God exist. Politics Left to Right from the left to right on X axis:
So it seems the issue is more religion than politics; specifically, a form of Protestantism. A quick check with a multiple regression gave a beta for confidence in god belief about twice as big as for politics. So politics may matter, but less than religion.
