1. Uhhh... religion IS a distraction at best and a militant enemy of progress at worst.
2. We absolutely do need division between proponents of religion and those who oppose it. You think that belief systems that rely on the willful relinquishment of rational thought can be fought effectively with politeness? Let me go have a nice, quiet discussion with a member of Al Qaeda about how I think Allah does not exist. We'll see how THAT goes.
3. Good. I'm glad Tyson is making important scientific discoveries easy to digest for the poor little tykes whose parents are endlessly filling their heads with Bronze Age hogwash.
At a risk of sounding like a moderate hero, I don't think scientists should cast religions as "a millitant enemy" of "progress" (whatever that really means anyways). I
do think faith is an unscientific concept, but most people are perfectly able to compartmentalise faith and logic into different parts of the mind. Nobody can claim to be a
completely logical person - if religion gives comfort to people, who are we to judge? As an atheist; I probably have all sorts of ludicrous, yet contenting delusions myself.
It would be fruitless to pretend that by being high and mighty didactic science warriors religions will crumble. Indeed, the rise of the "New Atheists" has simply led to overdefensiveness from religion people. I agree with Dawkins in many ways (e.g. his views against religious labelling of children), but his showboating has fed the hysteria of the creationist right, not a general rise in atheism. Organised religion is dying a natural death by and large. Its downfall comes with prosperity, integration and education; not through the screeds of the angry atheists.
Your last point is an unfair dismissal of a salient point. Tyson is in grave danger of promoting Pop Science and neglecting the reality of the scientific method. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy the fact that more people (claim to be) more interested in science. But sometimes this "Science is ing cool" meme gets lost in its own world of macros and factoids.
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