George Rebane
The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life just released a survey of religion and spirituality from which the table below is abstracted. (Hat tip to a RR reader for the heads up.) Check out the complete results here comparing Republicans and Democrats, and Liberals and Conservatives.
Now our leftwing cum socialist friends have been telling everyone for years that it’s the folks on the right that are the knuckle-dragging bible-thumpers who stray from reason and logic because they believe in weird things that you can’t prove in a laboratory. Well, not only is that not necessarily so, but it turns out to be exactly 180 degrees out.
Byron York of the Washington Examiner reports here on the study (also see table) –
"Conservatives and Republicans report fewer experiences than liberals or Democrats communicating with the dead, seeing ghosts and consulting fortunetellers or psychics," the Pew study says. For example, 21 percent of Republicans report that they have been in touch with someone who is dead, while 36 percent of Democrats say they have done so. Eleven percent of Republicans say they have seen a ghost, while 21 percent of Democrats say so. And nine percent of Republicans say they have consulted a fortuneteller, while 22 percent of Democrats have.
There's more. Seventeen percent of Republicans say they believe in reincarnation, while 30 percent of Democrats do. Fourteen percent of Republicans say they believe in astrology, while 31 percent of Democrats do. Fifteen percent of Republicans say they view yoga as a spiritual practice, while 31 percent of Democrats do. Seventeen percent of Republicans say they believe in spiritual energy, while 30 percent of Democrats do.
Can’t claim it as conclusive evidence yet, but it sure goes a long way to support the experience many of us on the right have had in talking with some of our leftwing neighbors over the years. This may explain why we run into so many of them who are fooled by schlock science and schlock economics as witnessed by their uninformed embrace of man-made global warming and Obamacare.
And they constantly claim to be the intellectuals who look down on us hoi polloi. Now we know why they vote for statist solutions and socialist politicians who promise existential miracles. The whole thing is of a piece.
rebanesruminations.com 
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