Prayer And Partisanship, Ctd.

By Patrick Appel
Lots of reader speculation about this graph. The most common comment:

The more willing you are to "believe" in anything, the more likely you are to "believe" in something else.

The same reader continues:

It is an interesting graph, but if I have the time I would want to learn more about what underlies it. I keep thinking of those surveys on how much "charity giving" one does where it turns out the deeply religious "give" more. Well, d'oh! They're in churches, which hit on them all the time, sometimes expect a tithe, and where the money given to the church is actually money given to support your own faith group.

Another reader adds:

There is probably something common at the level of personality to having faith in party ideals and having faith in a higher power. Both religion and political parties are hierarchical structures that demand a certain amount of deference to their stated positions. 

 

Finally, there is possibly some demographic thing going on as well. Most on the far right would be strong conservatives, which today means social conservatives, which means white, lower or middle class, and likely religious.  The far left would have a large black contingent, which means large numbers of Baptists and churchgoers.