yeah but that was 500 years ago. you can no longer force normies and femroaches into following your religion and a significant reason for that is that people just got fed up being turbo paypigs of corrupt religious leaders.
Coercion was never the sole or even primary mechanism for religion's hold, but yeah, it's completely unfeasible to try to make secularized individuals believe in religion, especially since their underlying philosophical beliefs are at odds with religion. The only way that could ever happen is if the demographics themselves shift significantly as time passes, since secularism leads to lower birth rates while religion is still capable of championing natalist values. That could, in theory, lead to gradual shifts such as what may eventually happen in Israel, wherein Orthodox Jews are multiplying at much higher rates; although, this assumes the current rates will remain stable as time progresses.
I do think your sentiment here is a bit too absolute, as the decline isn't just some "good on them" rebellion against corruption. It's also the result of prosperity, urbanization, literacy, individualism, and technology eroding the need for traditional religion's functions, as well as its spiritual power. Yet this hasn't eliminated human needs for meaning, community, or transcendence, which is the reason why the explosion of new "religions," such as political cults, wellness spirituality, identity politics, or nihilistic hedonism. Many people today are turbo paypigs for far less coherent systems. Religious leaders were often corrupt, as power corrupts, as it does in any institution. But throwing the baby with the bathwater assumes the metaphysical claims or communal benefits were fraudulent simply because some priests were greedy. I am personally an atheist, and there is not much I can do to change my fundamental beliefs about the existence of a divine deity, but I still think that serious theology (Aquinas, Maimonides, Augustine, or even Eastern traditions) is respectable and engages with profound questions of being, ethics, and theodicy that secular materialism unfortunately dodges with "evolution did it" or "society constructs it." I have been delving into Christian theology a bit more lately, especially because of a friend of mine who has done the same, and beyond that, I also think that even Judaism (which I dislike for various reasons), has it's own various strengths. Secularism is very prone to subjectivist or nihilistic thought, even if it may not be a necessary part of the rejection of God; the issue is that very few people take the time to grapple with metaphysics in any serious manner, which is precisely the reason why a religion that standardizes normativity and grants a robust epistemology and lens to view life from is so useful.
good on them ngl
all religious people who remain to this day are 1. severely retarded 2. servile 3. hypocrites (and actually pieces of shit and the biggest materialists)
And on average, non-religious individuals are worse in almost of all these.
