The problem with this question is in the definition of an atheist. Literally, that word means “not to believe in a theistic deity.”

Theism is attached to the concept of an external, supernatural deity, who intervenes in human history to accomplish some divine purpose or to answer prayers. In the light of the work of Galileo, who made the theistic God above the sky homeless, and Isaac Newton, who rendered the theistic God to be unemployed, theism has come on bad days.

Theism, however, is not God; it is a human definition of God that is dated and inadequate. Professional theologians hardly ever talk about a theistic God, yet none of them are atheists in the sense of asserting that there is no God.

It is a pity that theological knowledge so seldom makes it down to the people in the pews. It seems from this Pew Survey, however, that it might be making it in the ranks of the atheists.