“Abby recently traveled to the United States from Papua New Guinea, where she has lived her entire life with the Inisi tribe. The last half of class we’ll ask her questions about her experiences there and her beliefs. I think this will give us some insight into the very topic we’ll continue discussing this morning: the decline and disappearance of Christianity in twenty-first-century America.”

I forced a smile toward Abby, then purely out of habit looked down at the visiscreen that scrolled my notes. I had delivered this lecture a dozen times and had it essentially memorized. “The most significant cultural development in the U.S. in the twenty-first century has been the fading of the Christian religion from a dominant force in society to a nonexistent one. Although not founded as a Christian nation per se, the United States was always a deeply religious one, and as recently as 2025, a majority of the population in the United States self-identified as Christians. Today, Christianity has disappeared.

“Many reasons have been proffered for this cultural upheaval. I believe five carry weight as primary explanatory factors. We discussed four of these in our last session, which we will briefly review. Can anyone name the first?”

Petrov raised his hand. “Scientific progress in the last two hundred years.”

“Starting with whom?” I asked.

“Darwin.”

“Correct. Contradicting as it did the biblical myth of humanity’s origin, the theory of evolution was vigorously opposed by Christians from the start. A panoply of attacks against evolution were unleashed for the following century and a half. These usually took some form of the design argument, culminating in a late-twentieth-century movement called…what?”

“Intelligent design,” answered Fakhri.

“Yes. It sought to establish what?”

“That the apparent design in the universe couldn’t have arisen by chance and required an intelligent superdesigner.”

“Right. These arguments, however, never gained traction within the mainstream scientific community, and as society itself became more secular, the debate became increasingly irrelevant. The issue was settled—no deity was needed to explain the variety of life on earth. With that, of course, a primary pillar in the belief system of the Christian religion had fallen.”

Vinay, a young man from India, raised his hand. “I don’t understand why there was such resistance to the idea of evolution in the first place. Weren’t people interested in knowing the truth about their existence?”

I stepped from behind the podium. “Excellent question. Only if it didn’t contradict their deeply held religious beliefs. You have to understand that religion formed the way people thought about existence. Anything undermining that belief system was rejected out of hand. We still see this, of course, in some less-developed parts of the world today. Fortunately, most of the planet has outgrown the need for such beliefs.”

I avoided looking at Abby, not wanting to single her out as the one my statement would pertain to—though that conclusion was perhaps unavoidable.