And YES, there IS a strong element of religious belief in atheism. You apparently have faith that there is no God or some manner of Supreme Being, or all-pervading Consciousness. When, in actuality, there is no real way of knowing for certain, one way or the other.

Don, Don, DON! No self-respecting atheist will tell you there is any real knowing for certain. We're all deliriously happy with that. But there is not only no strong element of religious belief, there is no element of "belief" whatsoever. In common with most atheists I've ever discussed this with (a few), we predicate our attitude to the existence or not of God on evidence, pure and simple. Faith simply don't come into it, much as opponents of atheism would like to think so. I'm an atheist, I suppose, but I couldn't be more open-minded about God's existence if I tried. I just want some evidence (I have quite a high bar for qualifying evidence, I admit). If I get evidence I'm happy. If I don't get evidence, I shrug. To date, I've discerned no evidence. I don't mind discussing what I'll take as evidence, but that's for another time, maybe. "Faith" means accepting stuff told to me without evidence. That doesn't mean for one minute that what I'm being told isn't true, but, if it is true, there will be evidence, and I want that evidence.

Faith ugly. Evidence beautiful!