[TeMPOraL]

This is a painfully true observation.

I think the first time I really realized it was when I was drifting away from my religion of birth, and actually started to listen to atheist people around me. I soon discovered that the only difference between most of them and the religious people I know was the value of $religion variable. For one group it was "God", for the other it was "no God". The thought patterns were exactly the same. Neither of them could actually justify their beliefs.

[nadagast]

I don't think this is very true--what significant/majority of religious thought patterns are the same in atheism? The only one I think you could make a case for is ingroup/outgroup thinking, but that is not a majority of religious belief.

[TeMPOraL]

Acquiring the belief because it's popular in your ingroup, along with a strawman-based view of the outgroup(s). No real effort spent on thinking the belief through; lack of any real argument against the beliefs of the outgroup(s).

[jeremyt]

Ah yes, the old "prove that something doesn't exist" argument.