While christofascim makes inroads in government and armed forces, a significant number of Americans are choosing atheism

Religiosity —chiefly Christian fundamentalism of a variety of sorts—has long been a feature of the American social and political landscape. Its effects have been nefarious, not just for the culture as a whole, but for the faithful themselves, who are often victimised by reactionary ideologies and outright predatory preachers.  The impact of these people—as a voting bloc —has helped to elect the likes of George W Bush and similar types, with consequent injuries to American society in the form of support for criminal imperialist wars (Billy Graham set the pattern for this in the postwar), delays in badly needed medical advances (blocking of stem cell research), and so on. It should be noted that many more "respectable" faiths, such the Catholic religion itself, and Christian Science, also contribute heavily to the retardation of progress in critical fields of study. Right along these denominations, American culture's propensity to gullibility also produces out and out cults, such as Scientology. Of late, however, the number and visibility of religious dissenters has increased, and even atheists and agnostics, the "freethinkers" of the enlightenment, widely distrusted and feared if not downright hated by most Americans, has also registered robust advances. While the effects of religion vary depending on the cultural matrix and catechisms being used, in America religion, especially capitalism-affirming protestantism, has played, as noted earlier, a pronouncedly negative and conservative role. In that sense, then, the rise of religious indifference and atheism may be seen, not so much as a disintegration of morality, whose actual practice is hardly influenced by organized religion, but as a progressive sign. In this episode produced by the Freedom From Religion Foundation featuring Dave Warnock, a former fundamentalist preacher, the discussion revolves around his waking up and current path, after being recently diagnosed with ALS.