Atheism

This essay raises a very important point, namely, that people who reject religion often do so for humanitarian reasons and thus a category needs to be created in order to unite these beliefs, to define human values, and so on. That being said, atheists are not a group, and atheism is not idealism. Atheists are simply people who do not believe in a god, notwithstanding your definition as someone who rejects organized religion, which is not quite the actual definition of an atheist. Calling atheism an ideology is like calling not collecting stamps a hobby. A criminally insane serial killer could be an atheist, for example, with as much sincerity in his rejection of God as Bertrand Russell.  
 
The lumping together of atheists is often done by the religious themselves. Often a religious person links atheism and communism, or godlessness with Pol Pot and Mao, as proof of atheism’s emptiness. These spurious arguments and false definitions hinder intelligence. For communism and the cults of demagogues like Mao acted with the same idiocy and in the same manner as governments controlled by the religious. 
 
And thus turning back to what I think you are trying to say, but to turn it around, I think secular humanism is an adjunct of atheism. Rejecting dogma ultimately leads to embracing humanity. We need a better way to categorize such people. Secular humanist, then, perhaps, is the best generalization out there. Secular humanists could include atheists, agnostics, spiritualists, and even people that profess to follow religion. These people are all united in the belief government and religion should not be intertwined, and in the promotion of human values. 
 
These books are all good reads, and contain cogent arguments against religion, written by people with sizzling intelligence. But I do not believe the purpose of these books is necessarily to change the minds of the faithful, but to strengthen the arguments of those who reject religion, and to sway the minds of the undecided, or those who question their faith. In these respects the books are formidable, and will help the continued turning away from religion, one enjoyed by many European countries, and one that the United States desperately needs.  
 
As you said quite well - atheists are engaged in the one life that they\'re given rather than simply enduring it in anticipation of something better to come. People who value the afterlife more than life quite simply value death more than life. And people who know this life is all there is value it that much more.