"Like the question of evidence vis-a-vis religious faith, one side is relying on it for their conclusions, and the other seems to think it’s irrelevant, and thus, little actual progress is made."

The reason why many don't consider religion when it comes to politics, is because it's supposed to be separate. It's not that people on the left are all atheists, it's just that when it comes to decisions of policy, they should be based on past problems, future solutions, facts and data to analyse, etc etc.