Read a Nov. 14, 2009, New York Times article about research into whether religious behavior is an evolved instinct.

Read a Dec. 4, 2009, essay by evolutionary psychologist and biologist Marc D. Hauser, “It seems biology (not religion) equals morality.”

Read an Aug. 30, 2010, NPR story about the connection between human evolution and belief in the super-natural.

Ernest Allen Jr. is a professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He has written about the evolution of the Nation of Islam from its roots as the Moorish Science Temple to the stepping down of Farrakhan.

Sept. 14, 2011, First Things column by Joe Carter where he dismisses the idea of an oppressive American theocracy ever materializing

August 28, 2011, The New York Times op-ed by Ross Douthat where he provides journalists pointers on how to approach writing about religion and politics.

Written by Michelle Goldberg (W.W. Norton, 2006). Goldberg investigates the increasing religious radicalism that led to the re-election of George W. Bush in 2004.

Written by Rabbi James Rudin (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2006). Rudin looks at what he believes is a systematic campaign by Christian fundamentalists to co-opt and take over every facet of American society.

Written by Kevin Phillips (Viking, 2005). Phillips offers a harsh critique of the Republican coalition of the past 40 years held together by American oil interests, the emergence of social conservatives, Evangelicals, and Pentecostals and the American reliance on debt.