Although I respect Mr. Dawkins, and view him as an intelligent and well informed man, I cannot help but see that he views Religion with a bias, or perhaps a slash-and-burn tactic. Abolishing religion would do away with religious extremists and the mental handicaps of blind faith, but it would also be throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Religion and Myth are central to culture. We tell fairytales on different scales as a way to talk about our lives and the big questions through use of allegory. I believe that most of life should eb approached from a rational perspective, but the things which make us the most human and make us feel the most special are the perview of "religion." In a completely rational society, people would act civilly toward one another, but if things were approached from a totally rational basis, one culture for all of humanity with local mutations due to environment would be assessed and practiced. Native peoples around the world are struggling with a form of culture-loss. It's nto just about their language, its also about Western civilization drowning out their religion and society in order to conform to western ideals.
Some religious ideas are downright wrong, but they are most often CULTURAL ideas first. For example, Female Circumcision CAN be backed with Koranic verse, but it is NOT prescribed directly in the Koran. It is wrong to block learning and advancement, and any religion that tries to do so is espousing a wrong idea. After all, the attempt to advance sparked a good deal of religious reform!