That drift away from religion is an interesting phenomenon. The UK isn’t becoming a country of committed atheists. Most of the unaffiliated neither accept nor reject religion: they simply don’t care about it. In that respect, the UK looks a lot like much of the developed world. Even the US is heading that way (see “Losing our religion: Your guide to a godless future”).

So inasmuch as there ever was a contest between strident religion and militant atheism, it seems there was no winner. In practice, however, indifference to religion looks very much like atheism, and even more like secularism.

That may alarm those who fear that the decline of state-endorsed religion will lead to social decay – a fear Cameron invoked when he said secularists “fail to grasp… the role that faith can play in helping people have a moral code”.

But that fear is groundless.