Idk about you but I spend a good amount of time wondering what America would look like without the influence of the Religious Right, and what the world as a whole would have looked like if Xianity hadn't become the religion of empire for the last 2 millennia.

this has only been exacerbated by me binge-watching American Gods and reading the Written World & @kathsstewart's Power Worshippers simultaneously.

no matter where you reside on the atheist-theist spectrum or religious-areligious/irreligious spectrum, as @lizkineke says 'religion is always in the room.' and it influences the stories we tell ourselves, and the stories civilization passes on.