Well, if it is a choice between a prayer or an antibiotic that will save my life, give me the antibiotic!

The Theocratic Oligarchy is upon us.

This is a common tactic used throughout history; it is called control. Those in power seek to control through fear use spin and falsehoods to get their message across. The big problem is that soon these people actually start to believe the hype they feed others.

The wealthy plantation owners in the South used the false messages of "states rights" and a god made the slaves inferior in order to maintain the owners position (how many wealthy actually fought?). People still believe it was about states rights even though it was the south that was trying to maintain slavery in the new states lest they become a minority. Nothing has changed today and religion has simply become a convenient vehicle for power.

A big, ongoing, debate is less about religion and more about poverty. It is no coincidence that the people most susceptible to brainwashing are also the poorest and least educated. BTW we all know it was the Democrats that fostered slavery and Republicans that liberated the slaves.

Absolute absurdity rules the country because 49% of the people didn't even bother to vote in 2016 thinking voting doesn't matter. I do not understand someone being OK with being lead by those who want to hasten the apocalypse so they can ascend into Heaven. These nutcases must be voted into silence next election. I don't like the Democrats much either, but there is a clear difference in the level of insanity going on.

Stuff like this piss me off! Why can’t the religious just leave us alone and keep their delusions to themselves? At least there is some kind of hope, considering Ken Ham’s stupid creationist museum is failing and blaming atheist for it.

I'm not American, so could do not anything else but guess how the Republican base became ardent in their religious beliefs. I mean, if it's just the zeitgeist, the Democrats would have been equally changed.

E.g. Televangists have been around for decades. So it can't simply be that.

My guess is: the media. Specifically, Rupert Murdoch publications and media services. (In hindsight, they've been keeping people in that "information bubble" well before Facebook's and Google's algorithms.)