Is atheism a belief?

[Angrboda]

I get that theists may think atheists are silly. And in truth, some, perhaps many, are. That doesn't lead to the conclusion that atheism is silly in the same way that theists behaving in silly ways doesn't make theism silly. The theists here seem to want to tar atheism with a specific brush because of things that specific atheists, often a minority, do. It doesn't work that way. That's a non sequitur. And the theists would howl like mad if we applied the argument in reverse to condemn actual religions like Catholicism and Protestant Christianity, even though there is a lot more evidence that those things are actually the cause of the silly behavior of theists than there is that atheism is the cause of the silly behavior of specific atheists. The same stupid arguments are made in trying to hold atheism responsible for Pol Pot and Mao Zedong, and they simply do not work. They are a reflection of a guilty conscience, nothing else, and they are based on false crap and sophistic reasoning. These arguments aren't about atheism at all, but about helping the theist feel better about themselves.