The U.S. Is Retreating from Religion

Affiliation has very little impact on America's general religious behavior or culture. People that just affiliated but only went to church maybe once a year moved to more comfortable to say non-religious?

Church attendance for Protestant Churches is at an all time high. Protestant political power is at an all time high in America.

Trumpism has made the Protestant church morally bankrupt but that hasn't nor will it change the next generation of intrinsically religious people.

This plays into the Protestant/Evangelical narrative of being persecuted and dying breed. They love saying negative its the end of God in America in 20 years since the 70s. Even int he midst of the greatest religious explosion in American History. Just look up George Barna, that guy is a millionaire for twisting the statistics to make religion look like it is dying his whole life. He is the lied a ton and people still listen to him because they love gloom and doom.

I see people glad that religion is decreasing, but is there evidence that the evils of human nature are decreasing, or are they merely taking different forms?

I often volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, and I find that the (majority religious) people there are kind, generous, and overall awesome people. I ascribe a lot of this to their religious convictions. It's also possible though that I'm getting a selection bias of the kindest Christians who are the type that not only go to church but go volunteer with Habitat because the church is doing it- but I do think that the church is a positive influence on them and the community.

I also think that there are relatively few institutions that promote virtuous, pro-social behavior with the effective and long-term viewpoint that a church can. I wish that there were more community organizations starting up that acted in a similar capacity to churches, to come fill in their shoes. Less focus on shaming outgroups and more focus on personal development and community.

I would argue that these are the circumstances under which it is most important to push back against claims that are manifestly, self-evidently false according to basic empirical criteria.