It's much the same as when I left Christianity behind, there were a number of problems that had nothing to do with the religion per se, but the community around it (homophobia, pedophile priests, being preachy to you). Atheists have a similar problem for me, and a lot of it is well, Christian Culture, the same preachyness just misplaced. It took me a 5-year "bath" of Paganism (of the solo Wicca and Shamanism variety) to see it in myself, and start to see it in others, because it's not easy to recognize the culture one is raised in. Can't see the forest for the trees.

The difference is here, instead of leaving the belief behind too (as I did with Christianity) I still consider that Atheism might be the truth, I just don't like the people. It may end up like I'd be with Christianity if I'd still thought the Bible was Truth... I think 90% of Christians are Doing It Wrong but I kind of gave up on that critique when I left the faith... if I end up Atheist however, I have to say 90% of them are Doing It Wrong too.

1. Belief In Belief.
I wish I remembered which atheist blogger to thank for this idea, I absorbed the lesson but forgot the source, though I think it was a youtube video (yeah, that really narrows the search) In a nutshell, it's really easy to give up on believing in God, but still feel that believing in a god is a good thing. Some atheists simply stopped believing God exists, but seem to carry all the Christian baggage of thinking that God and Jesus are special and the Bible is Truth. Even if they seem hostile towards those things, the underlying attitude might be there.

This happened to me, actually.

My version of it was the idea that as civilization progresses, religions will advance in sophistication to match, tribal beliefs like shamanism and animism turn into polytheism turn into monotheism. So in that sense, I considered modern Christianity, with its advanced theology, the pinnacle of religious evolution, the ultimate final form of religion. Defeat that in logical argument, and you've also defeated every religion that ever came before (because Christianity defeated them in debate ages ago). You can dismiss all the "primitive superstitions" like Wicca and hippy beliefs and Native American religions as "evolutionary throwbacks".

You'll see this in other atheists. They beat Christians in debate online, therefore all the New Age folk are just superstitious nonsense and not worthy of using logic on. Besides, those people gave up on logic anyway (else they wouldn't believe the nonsense they do).

And then... I got into Wicca and Shamanism and the whole scheme upset. Because then I had to consider that maybe Christianity wasn't better merely wrong, belief gone astray. And the more I learned about the history of religion (which I wasn't interested in as an Atheist) the more I realized Christianity had been spread not by it's message but by brute force. It's not the pinnacle of human logic.

2. Paganism, ewwww
I kind of just covered it, but when I was Catholic, I had this aversion to all things "pagan". And considered them mere "superstition" and "nonsense". (Because unlike Christian miracles, Pagan "magic" isn't real.) Atheists carry this inherently Christian belief forward, by simply dismissing all things "pagan" (like Wiccans and the New Age movement) without ever bothering to debate or really disprove them. They're pagan therefore they're "crazy". End of story.

3. Belief in Your Belief
What I realize now is you don't have to have a religion to be a zealot, many of the activists in the Atheist Community are fanatics. It's an easy enough trap to fall into - like any abnormal psychology EVERYone has the symptoms, its the DEGREE that makes it pathological. We all believe what we believe in is true, else we wouldn't believe it, and we'd like to think that, because we're right, everyone else will come around to our point of view eventually and be better off for it... the problem is when you stop genuinely considering that you might still be wrong, when doubt and worry go silent... and losing that fear is addictive, it feels good to stride forward everywhere knowing for sure what you think and what you're doing is right. But that way lies madness.

4. Saving Souls
The Atheists and Skeptics who fall into that mind-trap (or more often, never really left it and just substituted Atheism for Christianity as the One True Faith) are the annoying ones. The pushy ones who seek to squash all other beliefs as "errors" (Ostensibly to make room for The Truth, but many are content to just tear people's beliefs and feelings down and leave nothing. As if that was the same as mythbusting and debunking pseudoscience.) They seem to have this (Christian) terror that, if the forces of superstition and religion were left alone, they'd corrupt everyone's souls minds into sin and damnation some sort of new Dark Age, destroying The True Faith all the Scientific Progress we've ever made forever. Same irrational fear of the Devil's influence being everywhere you see in the worst Fundies, different Devil. (Implied is the arrogant idea that everyone not of The True Faith (atheism) is weak-willed but you alone, armored by that faith, are untouchable, and it is your duty to defend them like a noble knight.)

5. Obsession With The Enemy
What fuels this need to "save" everyone is all the things one sees if you try and watchdog the people spreading false beliefs. Creationists cloaking their wolf in "Intelligent Design" clothing, Climate Change deniers, and the aforementioned evil Pagans and all their superstitious nonsense. (For example, I watched the biology blog Pharyngula devolve into 99% posts about Creationist Museums, a Noah's Ark Theme Park (that never got built), the Discovery Institute, bad movies like Expelled, and other crap,) They're every bit as hung up about that, as Fundamentalist Christians tend to be about "homosexuals" and Evolution "How is evolution wrong? Let me count the ways..." What I realized is it's the echo-chamber of frenemies, Atheists sounding the alarm "To Arms! To Arms!" against the slightest move the Fundies, Denialists, Anti-Vaxxers, and Quacks, to which the people targeted by the Atheists rant about Evolutionists, Big Pharma, and rally their base to fight harder, which riles up the Atheists more... And none of it really matters, because the message of the extremists isn't really getting out (its mostly Athiests who even care).

Listen, Atheists! This is what You're Doing Wrong. Nobody is listening. People like me wouldn't have even heard of things like The Creationist Museum or the Discovery Institute if it wasn't for you. The only thing you're doing is boosting their signal. A lot. The Sky Isn't Falling. (But it might start cracking if you yell about it loud enough...) I'm seriously starting to see why some Christians say "Atheism is a religion too!"... it's because you act just like the "fundies" you're warring against.

On instinct, I left that echo chamber behind to do more enjoyable things with my life. The words to express that didn't come until now.