It seems people in the US are running from churches and religion in droves. And while people are becoming less religious it's not necessarily that they are becoming atheists, but they just can't stand the preachers, and they also don't want to follow Christianity's restrictions on everyday life - like not being allowed to smoke weed, have sex, wear makeup and piercing, they don't want to give them money, etc.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"