First, Americans are also becoming less religious because there is zero evidence to support any of the central claims religious institutions make about God and the supernatural. And second, what worries me is not that people are less religious, but that they transfer their blind faith in religion and religious leaders to charismatic politicians like Donald Trump.

Bingo. Heroes like Carl Sagan are to be credited for challenging the populace when it comes to their belief in the supernatural. Perhaps we are at the dawn of a new enlightenment, in which religion is seen as the tool that it is, a means of manipulating the intellectually lazy by a cabal of charlatans who wish to concentrate authority, money, and sexual access. I fear the respondent has also properly assessed that many of these sheep will find a new shepherd in whatever tyrant inflames their idiotic passions.