Eh, I think I may have somewhat got off track about the original "Atheists ... imagine they are free of faith." statement. Regardless, I think we both came to

Eh, I think I may have somewhat got off track about the original "Atheists ... imagine they are free of faith." statement. Regardless, I think we both came to agreement that faith is a necessity. After all, you don't know that the universe wasn't created 15 seconds ago with all of our memories intact. You're being absurd. What I was trying to get at is that empiricism has its limits (and that everyone uses those "large doses" of faith). The only valid past that can be legitimately (i.e. rationally) studied is the past which has been subjected to empirical observation. We cannot rationally establish beliefs about a past which we have not (nor any human) ever empirically observed. The scientific method relies on empiricism to validate its claims. Therefore science which attempts to describe a past that nobody has ever experienced is functioning on faith (origins, existential answers, etc). Pretty simple and really all I was getting at for a typical atheist's worldview.