Hmm, thank you for reading and meaningfully engaging. Yes, certainly a one-size fits all desciption for what atheists believe or do not believe does not exist and sometimes the line between atheists and agnostics is blurry.

I do see that some atheists religiously believe there is no "God." Some atheists concur with the characterization. The original draft of my essay quoted the full exchange between myself and Colby Hess that I ended up paraphrasing to edit down the length of my piece in the hopes of my first boost, which I did receive. Here's the full exchange on the topic:

Me: "It seems to me that to many of its adherents (not you (I think)), Atheism is their religion, and they are just as dogmatic as many devout Catholics, and just as insulting toward people that believe in God as adherents of one religion may be to those of another. One Medium writer atheist commented to me that believing in God is a mental illness and believers belong in the hospital."

Colby: "You know, I used to always reply to the "atheism is just another religion" comment (which is a funny comment anyway as it implies their dime-a-dozen nature) with the pithy "that's like calling baldness a hair color or abstinence a sex position." But these days, I think you're right. Many atheists do seem to become rather dogmatic and cruel. Or if not because of their atheism, through their embrace of "secular religions" (e.g. wokeism, ecoterrorism) instead. I'm at the point in life that getting along with others is more important to me than demonstrating why their beliefs seem foolish or wrong. You might enjoy this one of mine: https://medium.com/free-factor/how-i-grew-utterly-disillusioned-with-the-atheist-movement-12794568f1a6"