One can say a lot of stuff, but is there any sign that there are less devoted people in the USA today than before? There definitely seems to be a lot of devoted Christians, which has worked tirelessly to get their opinions into law. Maybe the problem is rather that people are devoted to the wrong stuff?
Church membership is down, but there may be other thresholds of devoutness that are up. It may also be that the devout have become more political rather than more numerous or that there is no trend of religion in politics at all.
Actually it is the opposite, the less devout, the more political the christian. Progressive/liberal christians are the most political
Whether or not there is a god, the phrase "being religious about" something exists for a reason. I imagine a lot of the discipline in practicing religion allows you to make yourself keep going. Heck, it's even called "practicing" religion for a reason.
I've known many more devout Christians that are not Don Knuth than are.
> must be due to divine intervention
So a person can't even do great things without God taking all the credit?