The beautiful thing about TrumpMania is its positive effect on the quality of reality TV programming. Aside from the first season of the Jersey Shore, name one other reality show that’s captured more eyeballs than, “As the Trump Turns”?

On the downside, though, many otherwise fascinating stories have been buried by the avalanche otherwise known as The Donald.

Case in point: CNSNews.com just re-released the findings of a 2013 survey that asked Americans their feelings about religion in general and God in particular.

The reason for doing so is rather obvious: With the proliferation of automatic weapons and the carnage wreaked by misguided individuals using those guns to perpetrate mass killings, people HAVE to be asking, “Where’s God?”

FROM BAD TO WORSEIn examining the survey results, it becomes clear that, even in the comparatively tranquil year of 2013, God’s favorability numbers had begun tanking. To wit:

– While 74 percent of Americans still believed in Him, that number had dropped eight percent in just a decade.

– Miracles just weren’t bring seen as such by so many: Only 72 percent vs 79.

– Belief in heaven as the “last and final” stop as the always redundant NJ Transit conductors like to say, slipped to 68 percent from 75.

ALTERNATIVES

God is also facing new, and unexpected, opponents to his once commanding lead in the polls:

– Belief in Darwin’s Theory of Evolution rose from 42 to 47 percent (Note: There was no indication whether voters included apes, monkeys or chimpanzees).

– Nearly three in 10 Americans now believe in astrology! Three decades ago, believers had been limited to just Nancy Reagan and a few members of her inner circle.

– 39 percent still see God as a man while only one percent picture her as a woman (so much for shattering the ultimate glass ceiling). Thirty-one percent don’t see the deity as either male  or female, and an oh-so-trendy 10 percent see the Lord as either a man trapped inside a woman’s body, or vice versa.

Perhaps the most crucial statistic in the run-up to the 2016 primaries is this:

– Absolute belief in God has dropped by almost 10 percent in a decade. Curiously, the leading true believers are comprised of:

* blacks (70 percent)

* Republicans (65 percent)

* Older Americans (62 percent)

Try pulling together those three constituencies with a unifying theme.

There’s still some 11 months until Americans go to the voting booths but, were I in God’s sandals, I’d look for a new campaign manager and strategy. These numbers do not bode well.