As you point out in the latter article, he has won and may win again because he and those like him, use fear as the means to power and control. That's also the dirty bathwater aspect of religion. Here's an excellent recent post from Jodie Helm. https://jodieshelm.medium.com/using-religion-to-control-others-b85371baddb7

I often bash both organized religions and disorganized Atheism (as opposed to atheism). https://medium.com/illumination-curated/lets-talk-about-atheists-and-bible-beating-believers-in-the-god-of-abraham-fe139f4833f3 Yet I also agree with what you wrote today, "the vast majority of religious people are sensible and seek community not division. But religion, like everything, can be twisted into the service of a larger agenda."

In my https://medium.com/illumination-curated/of-babies-and-bathwater-07bd67b8534d, I recently posted this unbroken line tanka poem:

Religion’s bathtub filled with beautiful babes and soap scum so discern with spirit taking the best and straining false filth from mind