See the data over at The Audacious Epigone. This sort of finding shouldn't be super "counter-intuitive," there are a lot of variables which affect the opinions of a set of people on a disparate set of questions, and one shouldn't expect too much internal consistency. I may be that all things equal liberals don't exhibit this tendency, but in the real world all things are rarely equal.
The variable is TAXCHEAT. Below are the values for belief in God (left = atheist, right is = know God exists) and race.
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This poll isn't about liberals compared to conservatives, it's about atheists compared to believers. This poll doesn't say anything about liberals (or conservatives) at all.
I'm confused by your title. Your header says 'liberals' but your graph is about degrees of theism. Which is it?
The link I followed displayed based on political belief.
Theistic confidence (GOD) tracks with tolerance of cheating for self-described conservatives but not really for liberals (where it forms an inverse U). Combining all political persuasions, consequently, yields a pretty flat distribution.
Neal says:
This poll isn't about liberals compared to conservatives, it's about atheists compared to believers. This poll doesn't say anything about liberals (or conservatives) at all.
jay says:
I'm confused by your title. Your header says 'liberals' but your graph is about degrees of theism. Which is it?
Click the hyperlink to Audacious Epigone's blog post.