As long as religion exists, people will be manipulated (well tbh, the sole purpose of religion is to brainwash people), there will be blood in the name of religion. The rich and powerful, who used to reap benefits of it, will still keep exploiting these hordes of brainwashed zombies.

While it is present in progressive countries like UK, USA, it is to a much smaller extent.

Not sure about UK. but RW/conservatives from US are hardcore religious fanatics, you might have seen Trump getting along with "Televangelists" to please his vote bank & fanbase.

Now, how do we get rid of it. Educating people? Well to some extent, yes. But, we've seen highly educated people believing in religion bullshit.

So what do we do? Well, one time I came across lyricist javed akhtar sir's take on religion and he gave a very good idea to solve this problem. According to him, we must teach each and every religion (religious teachings) but with a twist, we must also deconstruct it and present to the impressionable mimds about its stupidity and naiveté. That's how people will be able to understand of how religion is a tool for manipulation.

Tldr: We need to develop logical thinking and reasoning among ourselves.