James Lindgren over at Volokh Conspiracy digs into the numbers from the 2012 version of the survey, and discovers, contrary to what many smug liberals might want to believe, the ignorance is pretty bipartisan. Yes,the predictable conservative Republicans don't believe in evolution (although most could correctly describe it), but a thin majority of Democrats did not know that the Earth goes around the Sun, and even fewer knew that it takes one year. Conservatives Republicans were less likely to believe in astrology than Democrats.
Re astrology; I remember reading a biography of Marie Antoinette. The biographer, in describing the social and political situation in France at the time of the revolution said that as religious beliefs withered superstitions became stronger and more widespread. I'm not surprised that people without a strong religious faith would find comfort in the revealed scientism of astrology, where everything can be explained by "when were you born."
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