Slackie Onassis wrote:

"I don't think atheists in general are religious about their atheism"

Of course atheists aren't "religious" about their atheism. We have no vast buildings with spires dedicated to worship of some concocted nebulous ether - bldgs. which could be put to use by housiing the homeless. Nor do we have "sacred texts" which we incessantly quote, nor do we have pope or Imams, or "dogmas". Nor do we mutter prayers to the cosmos, nor do we consign non-atheists to a bogey abode wherein they will burn for "eternity".

Atheists do none of those.

And a further thing, the atheist position is NOT about "bellief". Atheists, based on the Greek origins of the word (a-theos or without god) simply withhold belief from the theist's claim.

This is a totally passive, as opposed to active belief. I simply withhold my belief, intellectual commitment and investment of resources just as I would if a neighbor insisted that three headed aliens had just knocked on his door - but he lacked evidence to show me.

Further, if the neighbor wishes me to accept his claim, it is HIS job to prove it to me, not mine to disprove it - since it is impossible to prove a negative.

Ditto for the deity claimant. I simply withhold belief in his claim, until such time he can deliver. In the meantime, it is redundant and useless anyway. I can ignore it - after all- without suffering when making scientific or other predictions.

The implicit atheist withholds belief on the basis of placing the burden of knowledge, e.g. to show an adequate support sustains the extraordinary knowledge claim) on the claimant believer. (Which is at it should be, since the believer posits a de facto addition to the base of knowledge by his claim of an extra-material reality via deity)

The agnostic, by contrast, places no burden on anyone because he believes the entire issue is beyond the realm of human knowledge. Thus, he can't know any better than Smoky Joe next door - whether Joe's deity exists, or Tau Ceti aliens are digging up stuff in his backyard and trying to impregnate his wife.

Bottom line: implicit atheists are not agnostics, there is NO belief at issue but withholding of belief, and atheists are NOT religious based on all normative attributes of what constitutes religion or "religious".