Theocracy is the greatest enemy of humanity's freedom of thought.

Every great civilization has fallen to the scrap heap of time. I have a video series put out by Time/Life year’s ago (yes, they are video tapes) that shows the rise and fall of human civilization in various areas of the world over the span of human existence. From the Babylonians to the Romans, the Incas to Greeks and others. All were advanced civilizations for their times. All of them fell to ruin, some for observable reasons (natural disasters), some to war, and some for unknown circumstances.
Our country has been fortunate to have survived several near calamities (wars, civil strife, financial collapse), but the storm clouds are once again brewing, divisions are like earthquakes, splitting to the point where facts and truth are subjective. Will we recover once again? Will another civilization rise up from the mass of humanity to take over our vaunted position in the world? China and Russia are certainly watching for our weakness, if not actively helping to stir it.
Time will tell. Contrary to Christian lore, the future is not in their book of legends. It is a evolving and ever changing mix of nature, humanity and the unpredictability of their combination. Live each day to the best of your ability, fight for right when you see wrong, but most importantly, enjoy every moment you can, life is a finite thing and there are no redo’s.

An acceleration of the current brain drain from the religiously conservative states to the more plural ones, leading to a hardening of state boundaries and possible a full balkanisation of the US.

We are witnessing the violent thrashing death throes of Christianity in the US. With each new generation the percentage of Christian believers falls. Conservative evangelical leaders see the writing on the wall (to borrow a metaphor from their book of bronze age fairy tales) and are trying desperately to impose their beliefs on everyone using the power and resources they currently have. They don't have enough dedicated people to do it now and they certainly won't in the future. We just push back against their ignorance wherever we see it and allow time to wipe them away. Voting against evangelical candidates in local, state, and national elections is one effective way to fight back. Showing up at school board meetings and speaking if you see evangelicals trying to distort the curriculum of your school system with their ignorance is another. Voting against Trump (and the corrupt ignorance he brought to DC) in the 2020 election and getting others to get out and do the same is perhaps the most obviously critical action we can all take. We don't have to live in Idiocracy (although it is a great movie).

Arguably a larger and more harmful trend than our current surge of white nationalism. The place on the Venn diagram where they intersect is labeled "We are good and truly fucked."

A well-informed and educated electorate is necessary for democracy to survive. This is why the Rethuglicans, powered in part by the religious right, do not like proper education and prefer to keep their young brainwashed in their private, or home, schools; or work to hijack the local public school systems.

Regression. You are right about the significance and pre-eminence of Iran and Persia in the historical advancement of science, math, and navigation.

When the catholic church chased science, math, and intellectual pursuit out of Europe (known as the Dark Ages) it was about 500 years before Europe reclaimed the mantle of intellectual advancement.

We presently are in the midst of a movement that has similarities to the Dark Ages. It might be difficult to fully go Dark given the Internet and media access.

Education has its problems, but in minor defense of my profession, imagine living in an area filled with backward thinking adults who believe the bible literally, or watch Fox News religiously, or have very little education themselves, or (often worse than all of those) have no regard for the value of education.

Getting a class of 35 children of those kinds of parents and expecting even the most competent teacher to turn around an indoctrinated culture of ignorance is often tantamount to asking for magic. (Movie classrooms are never anything like actual classrooms.)

If it was up to fundamental Christians, the United States would be very similar to the middle east I think so. As far as the culture that is.

Iran became much more regressive as a result of US behavior . . .

Disaster if nobody listens get climate denying republicans out of office and we can do something

Religious intolerance is dangerous, regardless of which one. Ultimately, religion is a philosophy of ignorance and intolerance. Scary.

I think it will cause a seismic rift between the will of the authorities and the will of the people. If there was a real difference between the two parties, maybe the people could remove these dinosaurs from office. The birth of a new, third political party might help too but for reasons unknown to me, that has never happened.

Teaching children to think and dream is more important than teaching facts ... but teaching kids what to think is the worst education possible.

Sadly, Issac Asimov stated in the sixties that, "There is a cult of ignorance in this country!" the more I see the the more I believe him.

The influence of religious ignorance can be blamed for much of this. Despite what some people will claim, religion and science are not compatible. Their goals are polar opposite so the more science denial you see, the more religious ignorance you'll encounter.

That’s a question I like to run by the young religious pushers knocking on my door or stopping me in the street.. They enjoy the safety and security of a nation that once understood, appreciated, and utilized science. No more.

I’ve had this go-round in the past with various online ‘conservative/ religion pushers.’ How do they expect us to keep up with scientific advances around the world when our youth are discouraged or kept from learning how ‘evolution’ affects bacteria or a virus? ...I’ll take a guess - we fall further behind on cutting edge research - and they blame it on the ‘Liberals’

What happened is an influx of gaslighters who exaggerate things like Trump does but not always for political reasons. They bring their views to the forefront to push religion or start a movement, as well as to save money by denying environment conditions and just ripping the wealth from the ground. With the new trend in flat earth and other things out of the past many claim it must be true because it is gaining followers. They forget that someone is also selling videos and T-shirts, booking public pay by seat meetings, and getting paid by clicks to sites and pics posted. Maybe they are even writing new books but their is no new evidence. Antivaxxers write books and now the old diseases are starting to come back again. It is because of vaccinations that I saw polio disappear in my life time. Many do not believe this and it is not acceptable to them.

Meanwhile you will be convinced of lizard people and Nazis on the moon because there is money to be made. There is always money to be made and the money they want is yours. If religion is somehow in that picture as well, the believers take the whole thing as proving that they were right all along.

Denial? Try living here, our current administration is working diligently to bring us back to the 1950's and disassemble every advancement to society made since the days of slavery.
We have the most atheistic president we have ever had that is manipulating the religious sheep as well as Hitler ever did, he's just still looking for his scapegoat before he can destroy America.
Sadly the blindly religious who have bought into his scare tactics will elect him again because everyone else seems too apathetic.
An Australian built a god damned ark and then sued the people who gave him the money to build it because it got water damage from GOD DAMNED RAIN. THAT is the America I live in.

They're destined for the dustbin of history (hopefully) just like:

The Native American Party, renamed the American Party in 1855 and commonly known as the Know Nothing movement

Founded 1844
Dissolved 1860
Preceded by Whig Party
Succeeded by Constitutional Union Party
Headquarters New York City
Secret wing Order of the Star Spangled Banner
Ideology American nationalism
Anti-Catholicism
Populism
Nativism
Republicanism
Political position Right-wing
Religion Protestantism
[en.wikipedia.org]

These situations are not unique historically. Iran's progressiveness is debatable although its current state is pernicious to enlightenment in many ways.
Superstition, ignorance have been used all over the world for a long time. We are more aware because of our technology and news cycles. What is happening is no less abhorrent however.

its called sticking your head in the sand and its so dangerous for everyone. fuck having a beautiful lie.

The wealthy and their corporations have a vested interest in controlling the people!

As long as you have ill educated and ill advised populace and workforce, the wealthy and their corporations can keep the populace divided and apart maintaining an education and health system that keeps the populace in debt!

The schools, colleges, and universities no longer teach skills necessary to earn a comfortable job or placement.
Student debt keeps way too many in an endless circle of debt!

The medical system is overtly expensive, it does nothing to create a healthy society!
The cost of basic medical care, surgeries, and rehabilitation is not affordable to over half the populace of this country!

Interesting wording to your question Athena. If your question was "What will happen to America if this continues?", then the answer would be a theocracy along the lines of Iran only with a Christian bent. But you asked, "as this continues". That's really going to depend on how we who stand on the ground of reason while trying our best to apply critical thinking respond. When the outspoken people afflicted with the God virus push for religious programming in school and vocalize bronze-aged viewpoints when attempting to dissuade scientific evidence, we need to speak up. If we don't, we only have ourselves to blame.