Religion Is “Declining”… So Why Does It Feel Like It’s Everywhere?

Turns out the importance of religion is allegedly dropping “dramatically across the world”… which is both comforting and deeply annoying when you live in the U.S. Midwest and can’t walk outside without tripping over a church (or a Fox News-powered moral panic). In this episode, we dig into a study/press release from Professor Dr. Detlef Pollock (University of Münster) claiming global secularization is accelerating, even surprising the researchers themselves.

But here’s the problem: while religiosity may be declining globally, religion’s political volume is cranked to 11. We unpack how religion gets supercharged when it’s fused with nationalism, politics, and identity, why “competition” and endless spiritual options can actually weaken faith, and how modern life (work, leisure, consumerism… and yes, doomscrolling) leaves people with less patience for churchy control-freak rituals.

And because it’s us, we also detour into the real-world ugliness religion and “traditional values” keep feeding... racism, culture-war targeting of LGBTQ+ folks, and the way people thank Jesus for medical miracles while ignoring the actual humans (and science) doing the saving. If you like your religious commentary with evidence, sarcasm, and a side of rage… you’re home.

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📌 Topics Covered:

• Global secularization trends — “religion’s declining” (but the U.S. didn’t get the memo)
• Christian nationalism and why tying religion to politics keeps it loud—even when it’s shrinking
• “Personal Jesus” faith: people can’t define what they believe… but they still want to fight you about it
• Why modern life (work, family, entertainment) is replacing religious practice—because we be busy
• Religious coercion backfires: rules and community pressure create “going-through-the-motions” believers
• Fear of the “foreign” and “threatened majority” narratives as a fuel source for religiosity
• The weird hypocrisy of thanking God instead of doctors (and what that implies about “God’s plan”)
• Real-life culture-war fallout: racism in public and the social rot that often rides shotgun with religion

💬 Best Quote from the Episode:

“You're going to trip over a church.”

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