Yes. As you put Religion in quotations, America has predominately became godless but far from irreligious. they replaced Christianity with some form of lefty religion or another. And in part they supplemented with pop culture, and new age style religions. Liberalism made it possible, the rest is just a matter of time.

As for superheros, I think, no pun indented, that for many Americans whole comic book, superhero thing supplemented lack of Christianity long ago. But off course its something you expect from six year olds, not adults.

Christopher Nolan, wrote:

"Superheroes fill a gap in the pop culture psyche, similar to the role of Greek mythology. There isn't really anything else that does the job in modern terms. For me, Batman is the one that can most clearly be taken seriously. We all wake up in the morning wanting to live our lives the way we know we should. But we usually don't, in small ways. That's what makes a character like Batman so fascinating. He plays out our conflicts on a much larger scale. For me, Batman is the one that can most clearly be taken seriously. He's not from another planet, or filled with radioactive gunk. I mean, Superman is essentially a god, but Batman is more like Hercules: he's a human being, very flawed, and bridges the divide. What drew me to Batman in the first place was Bruce Wayne's story, and that he's a real character whose story begins in childhood. He's not a fully formed character like James Bond, so what we're doing is following the journey of this guy from a child who goes through this horrible experience of becoming this extraordinary character. That, for me, became a three-part story. And obviously the third part becomes the ending of the guy's story."

"What the hell kind of man decides to dress up as a bat and run around the city? There's got to be something a little bit loose in there." ― Christian Bale

“People are now more likely than ever to bypass religion altogether and to look toward popular culture for guidance.” ― Simon Davis, Atheism Is Scary Because It Reminds People of Death ...apeared in Free Inquiry, vol 36 issue 4

"Guided by nothing but pop culture values, many children no longer learn how to think about morality and virtue, or to think of them at all." - Gary Bauer

"Virtue has its own reward, but no sale at the box office."
— Mae West (1893-1980)*

*American actress, singer, playwright, screenwriter, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades

"Virtue never has been as respectable as money."

• Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad

"...though ours is a godless age, it is the very opposite of irreligious."

― Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

“The cultural situation in America today (and indeed in all Western societies) is determined by the cultural earthquake of the nineteen-sixties, the consequences of which are very much in evidence. What began as a counter-culture only some thirty years ago has achieved dominance in elite culture and, from the bastions of the latter (in the educational system, the media, the higher reaches of the law, and key positions within government bureaucracy), has penetrated both popular culture and the corporate world. It is characterized by an amalgam of both sentiments and beliefs that cannot be easily catalogued, though terms like 'progressive,' 'emancipators or 'liberationist' serve to describe it. Intellectually, this new culture is legitimated by a number of loosely connected ideologies— leftover Marxism, feminism and other sexual identity doctrines, racial and ethnic separatism, various brands of therapeutic gospels and of environmentalism. An underlying theme is antagonism toward Western culture in general and American culture in particular. A prevailing spirit is one of intolerance and a grim orthodoxy, precisely caught in the phrase "political correctness.” ― Peter L. Berger

@Krunoslav "Guided by nothing but pop culture values, many children no longer learn how to think about morality and virtue, or to think of them at all." - Gary Bauer

True!

I have been saying for quite some years now that Hedonism is the new religion. Materialism is the new "god"

@iThink "I have been saying for quite some years now that Hedonism is the new religion. Materialism is the new "god""

Pretty much, yeah. Although I would not say that materialism is seen as god per se, I would say that God is seen as state, the administrative state. All powerful. Providing protection and food and meaning for those that worship it.

That is why new religions, starting with liberalism, socialism, nationalism etc. Are religions of statism. They worship the state in place of deity of the old traditional religions.

Materialism and hedonism are ways by which this new religion operates since it really has not morals, because if state or party controlling the state is god like entity, they are inflatable. They can never be wrong, even when they clearly are. Hence establish morality would hold them to standards and undermine their power, and so morality is fluid. It is what it needs to be at any given moment to accumulate and protect state power.

The attack on family, other religions and individual morality, is because if there is any other source of morality, than there would be a reference a different perspective from which one could hold state morality accountable. But if there is only the state and state in never wrong, than morality and truth is whatever state says it is and they say whatever the need to to stay in power. Truth and morality is therefore fluid according to the needs of the state. Its like a bipolar god.