Do you think atheists are similar to religious people?

I don't think we're like religious people actually.

I also don't think that we (even as a generalization) actively try to convert people. We DO get involved in conflicts about our beliefs, but all the fights I've ever been, especially on this spot, were caused by religious people, and we are playing on a defensive front.

We are and we aren't.

Atheism is a belief system just the same as any other religion. Atheists believe certain things about the world and are, at least to a certain extent, guided by those beliefs.

However, as Lord-Voledmort has said, we do much less of the converting. There are groups of Atheists who do actively attempt to convert people though. But my understanding of Atheism, and this is how I practice it, is that Atheists, in general, quite firmly believe that people are free to believe what they want. We will argue the crap out of the rights, wrongs and grey-areas of those belief systems, but I think at the end of the day, a lot of Atheists do believe in the right to religious freedom, I would suspect because that right is not always afforded to us.

I also don't think that Atheists would participate in the kind of religious terrorism that we see these days. There are some FANATICAL Atheists out there, for sure. Atheists can be just as fanatical and pig-headed as fanatics from other religions. But what you don't see is Atheists groups training suicide-bombers or murdering abortion doctors. There isn't that fanatical dedication to a belief system that then causes people to horrible things because they believe that they NEED to do it in the name of their god or religion.

I would argue that Atheism is also less organised than the majority of religions. For example, we don't have specific churches or doctrines to follow. Some Atheists are moving toward that (ie worshipping Richard Dawkins and stuff like that), but I personally feel that that is a move TOWARDS the kind organised religion that many of us argue against.