What have atheism and religion got in common?

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I'm not going to deal with Atheism, but I will deal with its practitioners.

The only distinction between most atheists, and most practicing religious folk (say, of the Abrahamic variety), in their religious observance, is that one believes in a God, and the other doesn't.

There is no way that one can be on the Left, and not be religious. It is, in fact, impossible. And since atheism has always accompanied almost every leftwing movement to date, atheists, not atheism, is steeped in both a religious identity, and religious observance.

The atheist is a human being, and therefore cannot live out a life empty of hope, as a nihilist of some variety or another would require. Therefore, I think they sit on a swing, that is constantly in transit, between realism, and secular humanism. I think that when their faith in humanity is restored, they are fully religious creatures, and when a cold reality shakes up their faith, and doubt creeps in, they swing back to the other end.