Atheists don't exist

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I feel like a lot of the wording was intentionally used to make the guys point. I think it's more his opinion with a little science sprinkled in.

I'm pretty sure I still exist.

It's paragraphs like this that make me agree with you:

If a tendency to believe in the reality of an intangible network is so deeply wired into humanity, the implication is that it must have an evolutionary purpose. Social scientists have long believed that the emotional depth and complexity of the human mind means that mindful, self-aware people necessarily suffer from deep existential dread. Spiritual beliefs evolved over thousands of years as nature’s way to help us balance this out and go on functioning.

Ok, I don't think anyone here disagrees that the propensity to believe in something (such as a god or deities) has an evolutionary story.

But the author completely misses his own point in this statement. Spiritualism has evolved as a way to allow us to "go on functioning". Ok, so what happens when we reach a stage in our own evolution as a species, and perhaps as an individual, where we no longer require a spiritual explanation for events? Say, when we discover that the sun is actually a big ball of hydrogen that is fusing to create other elements and generate copious amounts of energy rather than an actual deity?

This also annoyed me a little:

If a loved one dies, even many anti-religious people usually feel a need for a farewell ritual, complete with readings from old books and intoned declarations that are not unlike prayers. In war situations, commanders frequently comment that atheist soldiers pray far more than they think they do.

Since when does reading form old books or having a farewell ritual equate to religion, a 'god', or even spirituality? Subtly putting in "not unlike prayers" screams bias and the author forming a conclusion based on his own perspective and is thus, for me, conjecture. I also would expect, of all places, for the author to cite which commanders have said soldiers who are atheists pray more "than they think they do". I know a couple of servicemen who are atheists and I'm not sure this sort of patronisation would go down to well with them, especially considering a recent article written by a soldier in Afghanistan about how he dealt with being an atheist in a country surrounded by theists: http://rationalist.org.uk/2684/last-post

The fact that the article is replete with these inconsistencies that even a novice like me can highlight and question suggests that there is something faulty with it. I think it actually does a disservice to the real articles it cites.