From Fox News

The survey also revealed remarkable divisions along political and religious lines when it comes to belief in evolution. Far more Democrats believe in it than Republicans, for example, and disbelief among the GOP is rising rapidly.

We’ve all been long aware of this, but the big news here is not that Republicans are less likely to accept Darwinian evolution, but that the fraction of Republicans that feel that way is rising.

Although some Republicans accept evolution, and some Democrats don’t, the reason a strong belief or disbelief in creationism is so strongly correlated with ideology is revealing. What it suggests to me is that political preferences are strongly determined by cultural differences–certainly more so than by either abstract reason or even economic self-interest.

What this also suggests is that anyone who has strong feelings about evolution, one way or another, is unlikely to have much sympathy for the ideological position of those whose feelings on the subject differ. And this further suggests that the same cultural biases will arise even when belief in evolution is not the cultural marker chosen as the defining criterion.

In other words, your political opinions are just that, opinions. They are determined largely by what you already know, and how you were brought up, perhaps even by your non-political experiences; your community, history, education, even your family. What they owe to your intellect is questionable, and you are the least qualified to comment on it.

That is why they are called opinions.