[neverywhere]

Religions have a longer time span and correlate with conservatives. Many religions actually shed their members who have liberal views. Thus religions tend to conserve conservatives leaning individuals.

So if religion was not part of the conservative-liberal divide I would buy your argument but it is part of it and it is long running.

[everdrive]

200 years ago nearly the entire country was Christian, but the entire country did not hold the same political beliefs. Protestant vs. Catholic may have been a more pressing divide back then. And how would your argument fare in say ... 2,000-4,000 BC middle east? Each city has its own deity, perhaps part of a pantheon, perhaps not? Are the followers of Chemosh more or less conservative than the followers of Anat? Who are the irreligious liberals in this time period?

[nradov]

I'm pretty sure the followers of Ninkasi (Sumerian goddess of beer) knew how to have a good time.

[neverywhere]

I would argue that time and again liberals have not reproduced at the level of conservatives/religious. This is why we still have the conservative/religious as the backbone of society.

This is why there is probably some genetics underlying religious belief: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7147-genes-contribute...

It may also explain why so many people are illogical about things like Covid in religious/conservative circles. They have genetics that incline them towards illogical religious beliefs in part because it allows them to ensure they reproduce the next generation, and some of the downsides of this illogical religious inclination is that they believe crap about things and are impervious to evidence to the contrary -- e.g. faith.

[everdrive]

I'd absolutely agree that there is likely a genetic component underlying propensity for religious belief. But "atheist" is not synonymous with "liberal," I suppose that's the crux of what I'm saying.