The OP said that the US is growing less and less Christian... Duh. Anyone who couldn’t see that coming 40 yrs ago has serious isssues.
But we are NOT becoming less religious.
Wokeness is a religion.
Scientistic Materialism is a religion.
We all have to have a narrative we live within which gives coherence to our continued existence; those narratives are religions. Everyone has one, tho some who aren’t so intellectually honest deny they do.
They’re whistling passed the graveyard.
I disagree. Do not religions by definition require faith?
When a belief is founded on hard data and proven facts, it is not a religion. Most importantly, when that belief is subject to modification, change, or even abandonment subject to new data, it definitely is not a religion.
A) how do you define “faith”?
B) how do you define “hard data”?
Your entire set of objections above places as a foundational subject of faith that you think rationally, that you have the ability to process data in a (relatively) objective manner, and make predictions based upon that processing.
Objective based upon what? What is the objective standard against which you judge your own conclusions? Is it “just turtles all the way down”?
Ultimately everyone is religious. You included. You place your faith in your rational faculties as reliable. You believe in your mind and in the order of the universe.
You are correct in as much that when I see two apples, and then add two more apples, I now believe I see four apples.
You may call that faith. I call it hard data.
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
