A small story, perhaps, and the big news is this is not big news, however: 46% of Americans are out and out creationists. Another 32% believe in something called theistic evolution. On the face of it this is incredible for the country that's supposed to be the advanced outpost of capitalist civilisation (more incredible because these figures really haven't changed in years).
A few observations:
1) Tread carefully. Atheism is not in itself radical or left-wing, especially in a country like Britain. If it is it is more so in a place like the United States.
2) The separation of church and state is meaningless in conditions like these.
3) Beware, there are people paving the way for this kind of politics here.
4) National politics is impossible on the basis of economic self-interest, otherwise it suffers from the "sack of potatoes" phenomenon identified by Karl Marx. Long-term politics fade and passivity reigns, punctuated by occasional mass movements with little lasting impact. Economic interest is transformed into hegemony and counter-hegemony by ideology (an ideology is a set of ideas consistent with a defined point of view).
5) The Regan Revolution was a movement to counter and dismantle the achievements of the New Deal and the Civil Rights movement in America. Popular religion already existed, however, as much as all class-based ideology was destroyed (we're not and never can talk in terms of absolute results here) religion has helped fill an ideological void.
6) Religion is a way of the 1% (as it's now called) remaining in contact with the rest of the population (and in control).
7) If the Tories are busy dismantling the basis and results of class-based politics in Britain, there will be a move by conservatives to replace this with a form of popular reactionary politics with religion at its core.
