I think atheist and theists are the same. They both portend to KNOW, as an absolute, one thing or another. It is en-grained in the human psyche to believe in something greater. Evidenced by Atheists still participating in some form of belief. As long as they don't make the STATE their god, I got no problem w/Atheists, although am not particularly religious myself either.
Atheism is only about one belief, "God", a deity. Atheism has nothing to do with believing in the legitimacy of authority, despite some doing so. Whereas one is not demonstrable at all, the other is an authority that is present and demonstrably exists, despite it not being legitimate and being given power through a belief in order for it to keep existing. There is a big difference, despite both involving belief.
There might be a demonstrable difference but once again, only what one can observe, suggests most atheists still have an absolute respect for man-made authority. While having only (mostly bitter) contempt for those who worship any Christian deity. I'm only pulling experience, as a former Atheist, with those I knew and many more I've met in my lifetime. At their cores, despite any textbook definition of an Atheist, still lies belief. This is my point. Few on either side of the argument refer to Wikipedia to execute their "beliefs".