Arguments about religion can be interesting, and even valuable. But I think it's a mistake to think of differences about religion as markers of conservatism or the reverse (whatever we choose to call the reverse) in other contexts.   

If you are on a barricade or even a picket line you don't want to worry whether the person beside you has what you (and me) see as daft ideas about creationism which they associate with religious beliefs.

In the same way I see assuming that ethical values like tolerance and compassion relate directly to politics. You can get cruel and intolerant socialists, anarchists, liberals, conservatives.