Astronism is a modern religion by most accounts, notably by chronology as demonstrated by its recent founding in 2013 by Cometan in the United Kingdom. In another sense, Astronism is also a modern religion by its stances on social issues which have distinguished it from traditional religions whose approaches to such issues undergo constant criticism for their perceived draconian beliefs on the most pertinent topics like divorce, homosexuality, abortion and euthanasia.   

The context in which Astronism has been founded is crucial to understanding the reasons for its more progressive outlook. With modernity and modern thinking in the Western world establishing itself following the instustrialisation of society and the separation of church and state (secularisation), a series of new philosophies have developed which emphasise moral relativism, the plurality of beliefs, and the expression and fluidity of sexuality. 

Astronism considers itself a future-oriented religion which, unlike other faiths, means that it is concerned with the events of the future rather than being totally engrossed with the validity and actuality of the events of the past. In this way, it goes hand-in-hand with modernity and by the way that Cometan has structured Astronism, most notably that the Astronist Institution consists of a New Concept Development department, and that Astronist philosophy is driven by what is known as motionalism, Astronism as a whole is not only aware of modernity and not only wishes to keep up with modernity, but wishes to continue to be at the forefront of modernity. It is this ambition to be at the forefront that is seeing the demise other long-established religious institutions. Perhaps it is the greatest advantage for Astronism as a world religion that it has been founded in the modern, postmodern and arguably metamodern era so that it is able to hold the self-referentiality of its role in society which may afford it to hold the penchant to want to be at the forefront of change rather than lagging behind, in need of years of convincing to make changes.