Religion's Place in the Future

From the very beginning of Stephanson's Manifest Destiny, the concept of Manifest Destiny is tied very closely to notions of religious justification/ordination of expansion. From the very beginning, the United States was viewed as the place in which the forces of good and evil would battle each other for control. At this point in time, the New World was the final frontier. This ideological justification for the expansion of America contrasts with Heinlein's work, in which the expansion to Luna seems to be one more of necessity than of ideology and "frontier spirit."

Furthermore, the religious base of Manifest Destiny caused me to reflect upon the conspicuous absence of religion from most of the works we have read so far, particularly in Heinlein's novel. In The Dispossessed, one could argue that the ideology takes the place of religion, but these two novels in a sense seem purposely devoid of a discussion on the place of religion in the future.

Regarding, then, our discussion in the last class about the perceived lack of frontier spirit in our present society: does the changing nature of religion play a role in this? (I would like to acknowledge an assumption here that religion is changing, that religious institutions adjust to the times). Does anyone think that Heinlein purposely avoided the issue to avoid opening up a can of worms? I think a tendency to avoid discussion of religion is present when scientific advances are of prominent feature due to many conflicts between traditional religious beliefs and scientific knowledge (I'm trying my darnedest to avoid offending anyone here). However, since religion is something that influences politics and the lives of many people, and since Science Fiction is an examination of future societies, the omission of any lengthy discussion of it in the works we have read so far is of note.