Is atheism nothing more than a modern-day cult?

I had no idea who Dawkins was before coming to R&S, and I sure don't consider him any kind of leader, I've never even read his books. You seem to have lived in the US your whole life, I haven't and none of the atheists I met outside of the US knew who Dawkins was. I came up with the notion of there being no god on my own, that's what makes atheism different from cults- religions are cults- you don't need anyone to teach you 'the way', you come up with it on your own.