my response

I will freely admit that arguing with someone when you know there is a 0% chance that that person will even consider changing his or stance, or his or her perspective is a little like banging your head against a brick wall. It is infuriating to listen to someone extol the virtues of (in this case) his view without realizing that a knowledge and understanding of the other perspectives is requisite for a true understanding of the subject at hand.
Now, this does not mean that a proponent of empiricism and/or rationalism (those whose infatuation of science emanates from them) must attempt to become a religious person, a person of faith, a spiritual person, or a person who believes in that which would not be considered secular (and yes, I realize that a definition by negation is a cop-out, but it'll have to do). This requires a leap that the person who discredits religion cannot and should not have to make.
What that person must do, however, is understand the role that religion plays in the lives of people - and importantly, recognize all the socio-political forces that have combined to establish the perspective of both the religious person and the secular person.
In that regard, I implore the person discrediting religion to read Marshall Hodgson's "The Great Western Transmutation," for example, to see how his or her perspective came to be.

Furthermore, it is necessary for this same person to not put blame on "religion," when blame is to be put on people. "Religion" does not do anything. People do things. This is not to say that religion is inherently good and that anything "bad" done in the name of a religion is a perversion of that religion. Some people do "bad" things under true religious conviction. But it would be naive to argue that there aren't economical, for example, causes that the secularist chooses to ignore in assigning blame. Religion is an easy scapegoat, and for now, it is imperative that it not go anywhere. If it goes, people will have to blame themselves, their governments, their economies, and other components of social life for the same amount of "bad/evil" in the world. Getting rid of religion will not get rid of evil, it will not decrease it, it will only change the vocabulary around assigning blame by the secularist.
So let us pray that religion stays, the world isn't ready for reality.

"The most barbarous and the most fantastic rites and the strangest myths translate some human need, some aspect of life, either individual or social. The reasons with which the faithful justify them may be, and generally are, erroneous; but the true reasons do not cease to exist."
- Emile Durkheim