Of COURSE atheism is a religion, they believe in "nothing"!

[eallen]

11. Positive, in the sense of something believed, rather than something not believed.

The usual notion of an atheist is someone who doesn't believe in a god.

By itself, that says nothing about what beliefs an atheist might hold, except that belief in a god isn't among them.

If we go with the idea, though, that atheism is a conscious decision, that shouldn't be ascribed to infants or rocks, that starts to imply something about what atheist do believe. It will vary from atheist to atheist, but generically I suspect it would be something like: None of these explanations I've heard or read for belief in a god make any sense. Which is a belief, rather than a non-belief. More, it is a belief that suggests many particular beliefs leading up to it, about the the various explanations any particular atheist has heard or read.