Atheists are believers too

A recurrent myth is the idea that atheists do not believe in anything. This portrays atheists unjustly as nihilistic humans. "How could such a person be a moral person?", believers popularly opt. Being an atheist, simply means not believing in a deity. It does not mean disqualification for holding other beliefs. In fact, it is essential to have beliefs. Without any we would be paralyzed. Without the belief that the earth exists we would be dysfunctional. Without the belief that public transportation is available today we would not try taking the bus. 

Atheists do not believe on the basis of faith

but on the basis of evidence

Blind (Faith) from Dollen

Being an atheist does neither dismiss a person from believing in the existence of a celestial teapot. But in practice all atheists do not believe in teapots fuddling like celestial bodies through the galaxy. We miss the means to disproof this, and there is also no legitimacy in drawing such a hypothesis. Empirical evidence is lacking and does neither accrue to a plausible explanation for yet unexplained phenomena. In other words, it does not tell us anything.

Virtually all convinced and outspoken atheists understand this logical presumption. Their attitude towards 'believing' is always based on the evidence they know. Such a person does not have faith in public transportation, he rather knows from experience that his belief is justified. Since people have different levels of knowledge their beliefs diverge from one other. My friend who goes by train every day may have a more positive belief about public transportation than a car driver who only hears the news that trains get stuck often.

Believers often assert that atheists have beliefs themselves and infer from this that believing is not stupid. Too often atheists get swept of their feet by this argument. Recently the argument successfully silenced Kate Smurthwaite of the National Secular Society (UK) in a live debate on BBC1. [video] The comment came after her rebuke that she does not belief on the basis of faith "because I am not an idiot". One of the members in the debate replied her arguing "money is not real, but you believe in it". It was unfortunate and almost embarrassing to see that she had troubles using this example to her advantage. It looked like you she was not prepared for this response and started to doubt, right after she made her very strong remark. The answer she should have given is fairly simple. Atheists do have beliefs about many things. That is indisputable. But they are skeptical believers. They believe that bank notes have value. Not on the basis of faith, but on the basis of evidence! The belief in the value of money is proven with each transaction we make. An incredible amount of evidence, that is. Now, what was the last time the concept of God proved itself?