Of course, atheists have core beliefs. That was not my argument. My point was that atheists do not share the >>same<< core of beliefs that defines them solely as >>atheists<<. Our only commonality is our >>lack<< of belief in deities or gods. Is a non-belief a belief? Is NOT believing in the Tooth Fairy a belief? Should all those who do not believe in the Tooth Fairy be labeled non-Tooth-Fairyists to identify them as a type or "class" of people to malign en masse? Karl Marx was into that sort of "class warfare" thing.

Those failed communists who supposedly used atheism as their philosophical foundation for their tyranny and savagery also did not believe in a flat Earth. Is communism therefore an example of non- or anti-Flat-Earth-ism? Communists believe in utter surrender to a higher authority and the suspension/destruction of self-interest - like most Christians. Therefore, communism and Christianity are more closely related than communism and atheism. But one is not the >>cause<< of the other.

To make the point using another analogy: if communists were atheists, hence atheism is communism, then the fact that Hitler was an ardent supporter and promoter of gun control means liberals are Nazis - the left wing is the right wing. An impossible paradox.