I don’t think there’s anything about being religious that necessarily makes you more credulous than someone who is not. But that most definitely doesn’t apply to people who believe that ancient religious texts are infallible recorders of history and perfect explanations for every important aspect of human existence. The problem arises precisely because these folks take an adversarial approach to evidence that contradicts what’s contained in the scriptures.

The problem is not so much that they’re adopting an anti-scientific approach to thinking about the world but that they wind of being hostile to the scientific approach and then it bleeds into how they approach all kinds of questions that have little or no religious component. Most people with car problems will ask the advice of a mechanic rather than a pharmacist, and the opposite is true if they have a question about their medication. But once you reject this logic–that those with expertise know more than people without it–you immediately become vulnerable to bad information.

If there’s a viral pandemic, you ought to listen to experts on viruses and immunology. That’s the approach I took, because they have expertise that I lack, and because other sources are simply going to be less reliable. I would take the exact same approach if the pandemic occurred during a Democratic presidency and seemed to be hurting the Democratic president’s reelection chances. Politics doesn’t change anything when it comes to getting good solid public health advice.

Now, some people are arguing that Republicans are falling for all manner of conspiracy theories, about the pandemic and the 2020 election and the January 6 insurrection, because they’re less religious than in the past. The numbers don’t back this up, because white evangelicals (or biblical literalists) are substantially more likely to subscribe to these cockeyed theories than everyone else.

Part of this is because they’ve allied themselves with Trump, and these theories all work to exonerate or excuse Trump, or to argue that he’s still the rightful president. But it’s also simply a feature of their greater gullibility. Science challenges the literal truth of their scriptures and they have therefore long discounted the value of subject expertise. A geologist cannot be correct about plate tectonics and the causes of earthquakes, and a paleontologist cannot be correct about the age of the Earth. Biologists can’t be right about evolution, and that gives them little chance of understanding how the COVID-19 virus evolves into new variants.

These folks worry that a professor will contradict their belief system and undermine their child’s faith, so academia is a threat to them. So they don’t look for experts to answer their questions. They’re searching for reasons why the experts could be wrong. This is doubly true when they see their political opponents (Al Gore on climate change, for example) embracing science.

It all begins with a simple assumption that scriptures contain inerrant facts. It’s pretty well impossible to believe that and maintain a proper and healthy reasoning ability. White evangelicals are just easier to fool than other folks. That means you can get them to doubt the moon landing, but also that you can separate them from their money.

It’s especially easy to separate them from their money if you understand their biases and what they’re trying to protect. That’s why they attract grifters like flies. There are no easier marks in America.