The modern era for most religions has been an era of decline. The elaborate explanations for the origin of the world found in most faiths have been by and large disproven, while modern scientists have developed technologies which accomplished far more for humanity than mere prayer. Some religions survived solely based on an ideology of tradition and ritual, while others downplayed divinity and became about finding inner peace, or made failed attempts to reconcile themselves with the modern age.
And yet this era saw the worship of the minor storm bird-god Zapdos become one of the most popular faiths in Kanto and even spread in force to the surrounding lands. Many explanations have been ventured for this, and it is true that the cult of Zapdos was never too doctrinaire, encouraged scientific research, and had a priesthood willing to adapt to the times, but to focus on this is to miss the point entirely. Zapdos, after all, is a god not merely of thunderstorms, but of electricity, and it was electricity that powered half the innovations of the modern age.
When the power went out, when a computer broke down, it was natural to try to appease the thunder bird's wrath, and when one played a good video game or even read a book by the light of a lightbulb it was equally natural to give thanks. Heat and cold still annoyed, but air conditioning and central heating made them far less troublesome, so the birds of weather became less important. And when the Great Power Plant became obsolete, it was understandably dedicated to Zapdos and set aside as a habitat for electric-type pokemon, an enormous shrine for what its owners were convinced was the greatest god of the land.
