Hello! I'll start with stating that I am an atheist and I am always interested in finding out why people believe what they do. I came across this article and wanted to clear some things up, at least from my perspective. I'll start with just one as to not make people read a ton of long winded paragraphs.
"In the US, only 20 per cent of people have no religious affiliation, but of these, only one in ten say they are atheists. The majority are “nothing in particular” according to figures published in New Scientist"
The number of "nones" out there is growing and it's true not a lot of the people profess to be atheists. One reason is because of the negative associations that go with the word atheist. These associations are simply not true however. It is certainly possible to be good without a god. Being an atheist simply means you hear the claim "a god exists" and you say "I do not accept that claim". The article is correct that you can't really choose what you truly believe, it's like how we know that fire is hot, it'd be rather difficult to convince yourself otherwise. I simply don't believe that a god/gods exist. I'm not here to start a war or be cruel but rather hope to create a dialogue between theist and atheist for better understanding!