[tptacek]

They're not tracking atheists or working to measure and expand chaplaincy services for "atheists" separate from "no religion".

The religion list doesn't mean that much. The religious respect requirements for the armed forces are codified in law; the DoD can't alter them.

[herewulf]

On the contrary I would expect that the most immediate effect is the impossibility of commissioning chaplains for any of the 180 faiths removed from the list. Good luck with that if you're a chaplain candidate who is an ordained minister of "Other".

No doubt there are other concrete effects that are buried in reams of DoD policy.

However, the message being sent is far clearer. Expect that the goal is to pare down the current list even further in due time.