That is a separate quibble. Atheism means no god beliefs, and some of us grew up without religion. Most left whatever religion they were born into, but I got lucky there.

(OK, I'll quibble a little: Atheism contains no element of *faith* in its beliefs. In contrast, religion does. Atheism is thus the complement of religion - you can either believe in something supernatural, beyond the natural world (be religious) or believe only in the natural world (be atheistic). For instance, I believe in Australia, though I've never been there, and nobody would say that was faith. Thus those who claim atheism is a religion are misusing both terms. Shall we start a different thread for this?) (joe clone maybe change this thread title to "Lefties to Gays to Atheists..." which is what I've been putting as a better title for the discussion I meant to start...
But I really enjoy the one Peter sparked!)