Not really like them, no. Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating we should get in their faces, knock on their doors, approach them with pamphlets and evangelism in bowling alleys, restaurants, hospitals, schools, hotels, libraries, outside of strip clubs, on the streets, and just about everywhere else with the intent on blasting them for their fallacious beliefs and threatening them if they don't deconvert. No, none of that. But approaching someone in your life to say "I'm an atheist/secularist" can go a long way to humanize the members of the most hated group in the US (and many other countries).
It's also important because we need to take control of our public perception. As long as we stay in the shadows and let them paint us as they see fit we will continue to be described as immoral devil worshipers hell bent on destroying the moral fabric of this nation.
As to how religion can be so effective at what it does the answer is quite simple: it's based upon, and nurtured by, emotions. Logic and reason are frequently demonized ( "ignorance is bliss," "God works in mysterious ways," etc.), while emotional appeals ("Love thy neighbor," "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son," "believe or spend eternity in hell," etc.) are used to obfuscate the illogical nature of their beliefs. If something feels right or good people rarely will question it and analyze it logically.
I also hypothesize, though science has not definitively conclude this, that most people are born with a high external locus of control. Research has shown that your locus of control is both innate and subject to nurture, so a child born into a religious household will have figures of authority reinforcing and magnifying his/her external locus of control. This is why one of the most common "pedestrian" theistic arguments starts with "Well, if God didn't do it then how do you explain . . ." Thus, you see people who seek treatment from doctors/medicine/science for a medical condition and then praise God when they are cured or treated. It starts with the emotion that a terrible fate has befallen them, then their external locus of control convinces them they are powerless to do anything about it, and when scientific advancements come to the rescue they decide it must divine intervention.
Couple all that with the amount of power, money, and influence a religious authority wields and it's hardly a mystery why they are such a dominant force around the world. They control the game, the rules, and the players. And to borrow a quote from the Matrix "You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."
