Atheism fulfills nothing. It is the null response to the question "Does a god or gods exist?" For atheism, the answer is "I don't accept the claim that a god or gods exist." It is not the negative, i.e. "I believe there are no gods."
Atheism is a single response to a single question. It has no dogma, no rituals, no strictures. Speaking as an actual atheist, your assertion that there is a belief system in place for a lack of belief is boggling.
I've seen many atheists over the years claim with certainty there is no god. Hence the ages-old saying "I don't have enough faith to be an atheist". What you describe as atheism sounds more like agnosticism to me.
Agnosticism is a separate category. Agnostic means "without knowledge."
For example, you can be an agnostic atheist i.e. "I don't know if there's a god(s) or not, and I don't accept that there is."
You can be an agnostic theist i.e. "I don't know if there's a god(s) or not, but I accept that there are."
What you are speaking about is the anti-theist, the one that accepts the negative proposition, i.e. "I accept that there are not any gods."
One of the key things to remember, here, is that knowledge is a subset of belief. One cannot have knowledge of something, "I know this thing to be true," if one does not also believe that something, "I believe this thing to be true."
Atheism is a religion like bald is a hair color.
Atheism fulfills nothing. It is the null response to the question "Does a god or gods exist?" For atheism, the answer is "I don't accept the claim that a god or gods exist." It is not the negative, i.e. "I believe there are no gods."
Atheism is a single response to a single question. It has no dogma, no rituals, no strictures. Speaking as an actual atheist, your assertion that there is a belief system in place for a lack of belief is boggling.
I've seen many atheists over the years claim with certainty there is no god. Hence the ages-old saying "I don't have enough faith to be an atheist". What you describe as atheism sounds more like agnosticism to me.
Agnosticism is a separate category. Agnostic means "without knowledge."
For example, you can be an agnostic atheist i.e. "I don't know if there's a god(s) or not, and I don't accept that there is."
You can be an agnostic theist i.e. "I don't know if there's a god(s) or not, but I accept that there are."
What you are speaking about is the anti-theist, the one that accepts the negative proposition, i.e. "I accept that there are not any gods."
One of the key things to remember, here, is that knowledge is a subset of belief. One cannot have knowledge of something, "I know this thing to be true," if one does not also believe that something, "I believe this thing to be true."