In May we highlighted research demonstrating that individuals with lower levels of education were more likely to believe common conspiracy theories. Two new surveys have found that belief in such theories is also tied to religiosity, with white evangelical Protestants much more likely to believe in even the most absurd conspiracies. A recent Economist/YouGov. survey found that almost 70% of white evangelicals believe former President Donald Trump's various lies about "million

Bloomberg News contacted prosecutors in all 50 states to determine how many cases of voter fraud they had found since the November 2018 election and including the recent presidential election. Despite the hundreds of millions of votes in the last two federal election cycles, state prosecutors have found a total of about 200 instances of voter fraud, and at least one of those concerned changing votes in a high school homecoming contest. In their report, Bloomberg correctly poi

According to the nation's Covid response team, three states are now driving the pandemic in the United States, as the divide between vaccinated and unvaccinated regions of the country continues to widen. 40% of the new cases this week came from Florida, Texas and Missouri, and Florida alone accounted for 20%. White House pandemic response coordinator Jeff Zients also noted that “virtually all” hospitalizations and deaths [97%] are among unvaccinated people. There are a small

If you are wondering why anti-vax rhetoric is so prevalent among Republicans, a new survey from the Gallup organization should help to explain the phenomenon. Trust in science has tanked over the last few decades among those that identify as Republicans, falling from 72% in 1975 to just 45% today. Among Democrats, 67% had a "great deal" of trust in 1975 and it has risen to 79% today. Gallup's results are quite remarkable, and a bit scary. Individuals with lower trust in scien

Most sane Americans hoped that after Donald Trump was sent to the ashbin of history, we could all return to some sense of normalcy in our political discourse, discussing the issues of the day based on science, reason, and solid research. Boy, were we wrong! Since the November election and, especially since the January 6th insurrection, America's right-wing has amped up the nonsense to unprecedented levels, concocting new plots and conspiracy theories on a daily basis. They ru

The number of white evangelical Christians in the United States is declining rapidly as older members die off with few younger Americans joining the church to replace them. That's going to have important political ramifications over the next decade. The Public Religion Research Institute [PRRI] regularly publishes the most thorough research of religious trends in America and this week they released their Census of American Religion. Their study found that the steady decline i