@hingehead,
We have to ask ourselves when did Atheist became main stream?
I will tell you.
When it was the 1960's and the "Counter-culture" started. It look all friendly with the sexual-revolution but was really a front for homosexuality which was really a front to ignore civil-rights for people of African decent.
They botched the system by the time the 1970's reached and some how atheist came to be.
The only open Atheist I knew of in my entire life was people of Eastern decent in college. Nobody else. Yes their was LGBT but that was because they came from a small-town from some no-name state where Christianity-X was the only real choice of belief and being LGBT and following any other religious belief was "fighting the power dude", and "down with the man" mentalities.
This idea of Atheism is only real as a revenge plot against those who would outcast the LGBT or even be indifferent thanks to WWII, Korean, or Vietnam.
It is like the "Cold-War II" during the 1980's only difference is this is the belief of a higher-power.
Even Buddhist are confused between Hinduism and it's origin. Or the initial usage. They just say "I am a ______" despite being whatever "Religion" ( Western God ).
God is God but the problem is the mentalities and points of view. Guy in Japan literally made headlines when he said "He is a blood decedent of "Jesus" but he is Buddhist" That in itself is a direct attack on the western philosophy of religion along with all grounds/source of atheism .
If mainland people from the far-east ( like China and or Korea ) are atheists why do they still do the mirror thing, or have super-substitution. By that definition they are condemning the western idea of "Religion" and thus are "Atheist".
You have two kinds of Atheists ( As with Judaism and view points of the Gentile ).
Atheists who have a belief system of higher power
Atheists who are brainwashed into believing their is no higher power.
.........................
A great example in fiction is the film "Dogma". The very beginning an "angel"
is convincing a nun their is no god and she makes a rapid life decision to change her way of life. That is what atheism is about. Robbing you of god to accept a lesser method of thinking.
A direct attack on our western beliefs.