How do we slay the dragon?

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Education, of women specifically. The education of girls tends to improve a region socially and economically 3 or 4 fold than simply educating boys, which is probably why most religions seek in inhibit the role and power of women in given societies. Perhaps why the Taliban are so insistent that girls not receive any education for example as it would be a threat to their indoctrination processes.

Also the free flow of information. For centuries the Christian clergy relies on their understanding of Latin and the ignorance of the laity towards the bible as a way of disseminating the message they wanted to hear. The advent of vernacular bibles allowed the information to flow, along with the inevitable questions and schisms. Multiply this 10 fold for today where the internet allows censorship to be easily bypassed at the click of a button.

Increased social mobility and economic independence tends to lead to less religious societies (the west vs third world countries in Africa and South America). It is not unreasonable to assume that religions have more of a foothold in poorer societies where there is more poverty and more desperation.

But 100% the education of girls, though it is doubtful that religion could ever be fully discarded.