Is atheism self-contradictory ?

[ManofYesterday]

I don't know, a mind capable of accurately representing the environment and it's relationship to that environment probably has a strong selective pressure in it's favor.  Is that not, itself, an example of ascertaining truth?

/facepalm...

Did you not read my entire post? Did you not comprehend it?

Here is a snippet from my post:

"A brain that is tuned for ascertaining truths and falsehoods doesn't necessarily follow from this process. For instance, a mutation could be introduced that negatively affects the cognitive faculties but nevertheless dramatically increases the survivability of the species through a different means. This would then be passed down to later generations. Or a mutation could be introduced that produces a false belief, but the false belief increases survivability. Finally, it may be that our brains are very good at things like "stay away from spiders" or "don't jump off cliffs" but they aren't good at abstract concepts like mathematics and philosophy. For example, maybe there was a mutation that increased our chances of understanding Calculus or Quantum Mechanics, but since being good at Calculus or Quantum Mechanics doesn’t increase your chances of surviving millions of years ago, it was left behind for simpler things like “don’t stay under water for too long.”

Notice how I provided an example of how evolution could be good at certain things but bad at others. The point is evolution doesn't necessarily produce a reliable brain for ascertaining truths. The fact that evolution lead to the production of a brain that is predisposed to the belief "fire hurts and destroys" doesn't mean that evolution lead to a brain that produces or is predisposed to only or mostly true beliefs. You've effectively ignored the meat of my post--which seems to be a trend on this forum.

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"Don't stay too long underwater" doesn't even require a mind, and even in the presence of creatures with a mind it's largely handled by instinctive and non-voluntary responses.  A person, for example, who tries to intentionally drown themselves will still attempt to swim up and will invariably gulp water.  That peaceful downward sinking scene is movie magic, lol.  In reality, we jerk like a worm on a hook.

Well, first of all, we’re talking about brains, not minds.
Secondly, yes, a brain would be required in that instance—or something akin to a brain. Instinctive reactions are from the brainstem, which is part of the brain. The brainstem was produced by evolution.
And you’ve effectively missed the meat of my post.