What I think a lot of people don't realize is that religion fills a space in the lives of people. If you take religion away from someone, something else has to fill that space. We all believe in something. The obvious possibility is to fill it with scientific theories like evolution. But then you quickly run into a different problem, most people only have a rough idea what evolution is and many don't know or are even wrong about it. In other words, in order for science to replace religious beliefs, people have to learn science - they need to be educated. You don't get it for free.
Atheists who spend their time bickering with religious people should rather focus their efforts on something more worthwhile .. like discussing the need for more education.
