It’s interesting what you say; I never go to the religious forum section but I see these threads every day. If I didn’t see them, I probably wouldn’t look for them. Is it because there are many more religious threads posted today than when I joined?
Back in the day when I first joined I don’t remember religious posts. There may have been some, but probably not very many.
Nowadays it seems that some folks post religious messages on FR every day, presumably in the hope that others will be converted to their particular sect. (I’m separating out the more noxious posts against different religions such as the Catholics and Mormons.) I’m sure those folks are sincere, but I don’t believe in proselytizing for a particular religion to a captive audience. This is kinda like someone standing up at a movie and preaching at me; I wouldn’t be very receptive to it. It has nothing to do with their message, but the location is a place I go to for something else.
I joined around the same time you did and for sure, there used to be a lot of more politically astute posters here. Now it seems like every other thread is a religion thread. And that isn't even counting the folks that post religious responses on totally secular threads. FR has attracted, over the years, the demographic that eats, drinks, walks and sleeps religion 24/7. Not a secular thought in their head, and thoroughly incapable of formulating an opinion or argument outside that context.
Actually, without the religious threads, esp the ones that are contentious, FR would have far less hits and Alexa standing. Often time FR comes up in my Googling for something, which is far better then HuffPo.