I spend a lot of time on this channel ripping on religion --
for good reason --
but there are a lot of things that churches
actually do really well and we can learn a lesson from that.
And I'm not saying that everything churches do
is based in reality, we know is not,
but it doesn't mean we can't learn some lessons from them.
I should say for the purposes of this video
I'm only talking about Christian churches.
And this list was inspired by an article by a guy named Matt Ward
and you can see his article linked down below.
Churches give you a sense of purpose.
People want to feel like they're part of something bigger.
People want to feel like they're making a contribution to something they care about.
They always want to feel like they're involved.
And people will devote their lives to these causes. I mean, people will join
churches led by people like Mark Driscoll
just because they want to feel like they're actually part of something.
Think about all the things you can do when you're part of a church.
I mean, you can go on mission trips, you can
teach Sunday school, you can volunteer, you can
lead a small group. There are so many
opportunities you have to feel like you're part of something bigger
when you're involved with the church.
So, as atheists, how can we make people feel important? How can we
help this people that lose their faith in God
but just need some other thing that help them out. Some sort of community there.
That's why I support local groups and campus groups so much because
they are perfect. They're not for everybody,
but they help so many people.
You know,
I've heard a lot of complaints about the so called "atheist church" that's been going,
you know, even worldwide.
But I don't really have a lot of complaints about it,
because even if it's not for me,
there's a lot of people who see that and say,
You know what? I don't believe in God, but what a perfect transition for me
to finally leave my religious church for good.
Churches make rules that you have to follow.
This seems like a weird one to have on the list
because, you know, rules are supposed to be bad. Right?
And we all know all the things churches tell you you're not supposed to do.
Don't have sex before marriage.
Don't listen to what your science teacher says.
Don't be gay.
All the seven deadly sins.
You have to tithe.
We all know the list of things you're supposed to do and not do and...
We kind of laugh at it.
But a lot of people need rules.
They need someone to tell them what to do
and what not to do.
Have you ever had a personal trainer?
Or you know someone who's had a personal trainer?
It seems kind of like a
purchase you don't really need. It's like just...
Just eat right and exercise. You don't need a personal trainer.
But for some people just saying that isn't enough.
They need someone who's kind of in their face saying,
"We need you to eat this way". "We need you to exercise this way".
And that's the only way they're going to change what they're doing.
And for a lot of religious people
they see those rules. They don't have to like those rules,
but it does help them live their lives on a regular basis.
The rules give people stability and a sense of commitment.
So, should atheists have rules?
That seems kind of weird to say because where would they even be coming from?
I could say we all try to live by the golden rule.
Or even the Humanist Manifesto. It's like a list of rules
for people who don't believe in God and it's gone through a few iterations over time.
You're not going to go to hell if you don't follow those rules,
but there are actually ways atheists have tried to give your life
some sort of restrictions on how you should live.
And it's not quite as restrictive as some of the religious rules, maybe,
but they do give you some guidance over how you should live your life.
Churches offer community.
If you lose your job, if you get sick, if you need help at home,
your church has your back.
I mean, they will take care of you no matter what you're going through
and that's one of the amazing things about a church community.
Even small ones, I mean, they will take care of you.
And that's one of the hardest things as an atheist
because, what do we have that functions in the same way?
I mean, it's also one of the reasons people don't want to leave their churches.
Because it's not like they're just saying goodbye to God.
They're kind of saying they're kind of turning their backs on their entire social circles.
So, we got to have some way to...
To tell them "it's going to be okay", even if you're leaving the church.
"We're going to take care of you".
And by the way, that doesn't have to be a physical community.
I get a lot of messages from people saying they're atheists and they feel alone.
And what should they do?
And I say, you know, join a campus group.
And maybe they're not in college. Okay...
Join a local group. "Well, there is none in my area".
Fine, then go and start a group.
"That's not really my thing". Okay, fine, then join an online community.
Go to Reddit Atheism and
start telling people about what you're going through, anonymously, if you have to.
The point is, there's got to be a community out there that will
have your back, that thinks the same way you do,
that knows what you're going through and they will support you.
It doesn't have to be in person
but it is good to have that support out there.
Churches have recurring revenue.
This is one of the things we know churches do well.
They make you feel really obligated to give them money week after week.
And, on a business level, it's kind of smart because it means they can budget
well into the future because they know roughly how much they're going to make every week.
That stability matters.
I mean, it's one of the reasons a lot of people are sometimes afraid
to quit their jobs and try something that may be risky, but a really more lucrative.
You'd be giving up on something very stable.
So, that recurring revenue matters a lot for the life of the church.
I've seen a lot of atheist groups at all levels
struggle because they find it so difficult to ask members
and people who come to their meetings for money.
And I understand that, I mean,
it's a very unnatural thing to do, to ask other people for money.
But sometimes really is necessary.
You may have seen a lot of people on YouTube
start something called a page on Patreon.
We've done it on this channel as well.
And the reason is sometimes advertising rates are unreliable.
You don't know how many people are going to watch your videos,
and that means the Patreon income is a little more stable,
but it means that you know how much you're going to make, it means you can
forecast what you're going to do in the future.
And I'm not saying you should
try to make money for the sole purpose of lining anyone's pocket. That's not the point.
But if you're offering something of substance to people,
why not ask the people who are benefiting from that
to give you some support?
So, if you're an atheist group, this is where you really have to learn a lesson from the church.
Are you providing something of value to the people who come week after week?
Are you bringing in really compelling speakers?
Are you providing food for people, week after week?
Are you running charity drives that people feel really proud to be a part of?
If you're doing those things, as I know a lot of groups do,
don't feel bad about asking people who come visit you every time
for some support.
Churches know how to do that and they definitely don't feel bad about it.
We shouldn't feel bad about it either.
Churches offer eternal value.
And this is one of the strongest things churches do
and it's a lie. They make you believe you will live forever in spirit.
They give your life some meaning
even when, you know, the alternative might be pretty depressing.
I mean, it's a pretty powerful thing to dangle a carrot in front of people saying,
"Heaven awaits you if you do a certain list of things". If you,
you know, start believing in Jesus as divinity, if you do good things in your life,
you have a great afterlife waiting for you.
Can atheists replicate that?
Well, not really in the same way, but it is important for us
to remind people how they can leave a positive legacy behind, even after they're gone.
And that may mean, you know, how do you get people to become really powerful
activist about the issues they care about?
Or maybe they're leaving a legacy through the art work that they make,
or the children that they raise.
The point is, you know, we all leave legacies behind,
we all kind of have this afterlife, whether or not you believe,
you know, in any sort of religious beliefs.
But the point is, how do we get people to realize that?
And how do we get them to live a life that is really meaningful, and fulfilling,
so that, you know, they feel like they left something behind even after they're gone?
We can do that as atheists.
Church pastors tell great stories.
I can't stress this enough. I have been to so many churches.
Honestly, I've been to so many churches, and I've seen a lot of really great pastors.
And they know how to keep you awake during a sermon.
They know how to use the perfect analogy to really hammer home the message they want to send.
They know how to get people really interested and
actively involved in what they're saying.
As a teacher, I'm kind of jealous. I wish I had that power everyday with my students.
But the great pastors know how to do that really well.
Those pastors know how to inject humor into their sermons as well.
And I honestly don't see this very much in the atheist world.
We're just not trained to be public speakers as a whole.
I've seen a lot of people talk about, you know, "They didn't give me a list of reasons God doesn't exist".
But I don't think atheists, as a whole anyway, there are exceptions,
I don't think atheists, as a whole, realize the power of a deconversion story.
You know, a lot of people, if you read the new atheists' books, for a lot of people they're so
robotic, they're just like, "Okay, God doesn't exist for this reason and that",
But Ayaan Hirsi Ali's story of how she left Islam, that's a really powerful story.
That could compel people to leave religion
in a way that, you know, the best arguments from,
you know, Cristopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins could never do.
This happens on YouTube all the time. I would see a lot of other YouTube atheists
rant about anything and everything.
And it honestly just does nothing for me. I don't learn anything from it.
But when I hear someone telling a story,
I'm really compelled to listen because now I know why this matters.
The funny thing is we see this principle all around us, all the time.
If you look at some of the best-selling books in the past several years, you know,
Malcom Gladwell, all those freakonomic books,
they're all about getting a message across,
but through a whole bunch of really interesting stories, and they're really good at it.
Even companies do the same thing. How many people
love Apple products because they love the story of Steve Jobs and everything he stands for?
And by the way, unlike pastors, we don't have to make our stories up.
Reality is interesting enough.
And, by the way, Carl Sagan knew how to tell a story.
Neil deGrasse Tyson knows how to tell a story.
Every time they talked, or they talk now, people listen.
Because they have that power of really get a message across
and they know exactly how to get it to stick in your mind for a long time.
So, let's learn a lesson from them.
And let's learn a lesson from pastors who do it really well.
And, by the way, I should add that,
you know, if I ever visit my parents on a weekend, that I think I've said this before on these videos,
my mom would be watching Joel Osteen on TV.
She's not a Christian at all,
but she loves the way he gets his message across.
And it affects her. It means something to her.
Churches have personality branding.
Speaking of Joel Osteen, have you ever seen any of his books? They always have this
happy smiling face on the cover. It's like plastered on. You can't get that thing off of them.
And churches are often known by whoever their pastor is.
And maybe that's a good thing, maybe that's not a good thing. Sometimes, you can have a leader
who's not exactly the pitch perfect person you want him to be.
And you end up with someone like Ted Haggard.
That's not always a good thing.
Sometimes it's just easier to connect with a person
rather than an abstract idea.
I mean, how many people in 2008
voted for Barack Obama because they loved everything he stood for?
Even if on any other occasion
they could care less about politics; they could care less about the Democratic Party.
Sometimes it's important to have that face of atheism out there,
rather than just think that,
"Oh, if I just give you some good arguments for why you shouldn't believe in God,
that would do the trick".
No, that's not going to do the trick for everybody. The messenger matters.
We know atheism has a stigma.
But sometimes, if you know someone, you like someone, you trust someone, who happens to be an atheist,
you may be more likely to follow what they do.
I mean, think about this.
Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter and Ricky Gervais who starred The Office,
they're both outspoken atheists. They say as much in interviews everywhere.
And they may have convinced more people to become atheists, or to question their faiths,
than anything, you know, Sam Harris might have ever done.
Because you just like them when you see them. And the messenger makes a difference.
I know we're atheists, I know we like to align on our arguments, and the logic.
But we have to realize, it's not like Christians are walking around saying, "This is why God exists".
There are only a handful of people that do that, they have a separate genre, they're called like apologists.
But for most people, it's like, "Oh, pastor Rick Warren, pastor Joel Osteen".
I like those guys. I like what they say and I want to be on their team.
Well, guess what? If you want to get people into that fold, that atheism fold,
sometimes it helps having someone you can latch on to, who can help guide you in that direction
Personalities matter.
And by the way,
all of you watching this video, you're all ambassadors for atheism whether you like it or not.
So, just remember that.
I'm not saying everyone has to be this happy, smiling, friendly atheist.
You can sometimes be effective and be very blunt. And very...
Very much aggressive.
But keep that in mind when you're talking to someone. If you're trying to convince them to not believe in God,
some people are only going to respond in certain ways. And you should at least think about that.
Churches know how to handle fear..
There are so many things in our life that we all dread.
Whether is the death of a loved one, whether is our own impending death.
What if I lose a job? Or just have a loved one who's very sick. I mean,
churches know that you are upset and you are scared a lot of the time.
And they know exactly what they have to do to help you out in those stressful situations.
So how do we as atheists response to those same situations?
As atheists, we don't want to rely on false hope,
which is a lot of what religion offers. We don't want to rely on that, we want something tangible
and immediate.
And that means we got to provide resources for people who are dealing with those tough times.
I got to say, right now there really aren't that many ways...
Ways to learn about how to deal with those difficult situations if you're an atheist.
They're starting to appear.
There's a great website called GriefBeyondBelief.org
that helps people deal with the death of a loved one.
That's a fantastic resource. But we need more of that.
We need people who have been through some really dramatic times,
who are willing to put themselves out there and say, "Look, I've been through this",
"I went to a break up", "I lost a child".
And let me tell you what it was like for me, and let me tell you how I got through it.
Help the people who are going to be dealing with the same problems after you've already gone through that.
Christians know how to do that. They have been doing that so many decades now and they've mastered it.
We got to follow suit, we got to help people deal with the worst moments of their life.
Churches are good at outreach.
Between mission trips and greeters at the front door of the church
and having people preach to you on the street,
Christians know how to get their message across.
I'm not saying it always works,
but they have so many different ways to get their message out there,
to get the gospel out there
I mean, I've heard this from some of you,
but how many times, even when you were a kid in school,
how many times did a Christian say...?
You know, become your best friend.
Not because they really liked you,
but because they really wanted you to come to church with them.
I mean, it's a classic bait-and-switch, but it's...
It's all about getting the message of Christ out there. They're really good at it.
Most atheists I know hate that. They don't want to do any of those things
and I totally understand that. You don't want to
pressure someone into becoming an atheist.
You just kind of want to give them the seeds
and let them figure it out on their own, let it happen organically.
But at the same time we got to realize, you know, what...
What message are we putting out there as atheists?
How are we getting people to hear what we have to say?
So we have to ask ourselves, you know, how do we talk about religion with other people?
Are we assholes about it? Because that might not work.
If we have an event going on at our school, how do we...
advertising for it? Isn't it a way that's going to draw people in and really be interested?
Even if you make Youtube videos, or you have a website,
or whatever it is you do to get out the message,
Are you doing it in a way that religious people
will actually want to have a conversation with you?
Or they're just going to say,
"That person is a jerk". I want nothing to do with it.
And you never make that connection.
At least, let's talk about those questions. Those are things we should all be thinking about.
Because I promise you churches know how to do it really well.
And even, you know, some churches see someone on the street,
they're not huge fans of that,
but they have their own ways of getting through to their community.
And it works.
I'm not saying we should copy the church.
Believe me, there are lots of things we don't want to do just like them.
But we also have the luxury of knowing what they do, that we really hate.
And we can avoid all that.
We can learn a lot from Christian churches, from what they do well
about how to get our own message across.
And maybe if we, you know, follow some of these pastors,
we can actually do ourselves a favor.
My name is Hemant Mehta and I write at FriendlyAtheist.com
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