I'm about 50 argument steps behind here because it's taken me so long to read the thread .
The fundamental (if you don't mind my using that word) confusion seems to be because the christian way of handling society is so deeply intertwined with a belief in god, it's hard not to see atheism in the same way.
But atheism is something entirely different. You can have very similar views about society, morals etc, the difference is that the concept of god just makes no sense whatsoever.
It's incredibly hard to get over to someone who finds that 'nothingness' difficult and needs to find a structure to explain it. If you take away that structure and see life, the universe etc just as a random selection of stuff that just happens to have got us to this point in time, you're not 'unbelieving', the concept of god is just irrelevant. It's really not the same as an absense of faith or even an open mind.
Aloha's bible quotes might have given the impression that has a relevance for her, but actually I think she's just taking the opportunity to try and get her head round how you could possibly like that god. So while we're at it, could someone explain how you think you'll be 'with' others in the afterlife? How could it possibly work?