But Lasers = Good, Angry Lasers = Better.
Because atheism is totally a religion. You don't need a system of beliefs to be a good person and better yourself.
Atheism, by itself, isn't so much a religion as it is a category of beliefs. There's a few atheist religions out there, afaik.
More specifically, atheism is the rejection of belief in deities. There are quite a few religions, including several major ones, which are compatible with that. Depending on how literal you want to be, you could practice a religion which includes the application of ritual magic and the worship of spirits while still being an atheist. The problem that arises (particularly in places with an Abrahamic tradition) is that theists often understand atheism within their own worldview--that is to say that they treat it as being either a religion or a direct response to
their religion (in short, as a system of belief, rather than a single viewpoint regarding the ethical and logical issues inherent in the conception of deities as real, non-metaphorical entities which might belong within any of a wide range of possible worldviews), while many atheists (particularly what we can think of as angry-atheists) conceive of atheism solely within their own cultural framework, which is ultimately quite similar to their counterparts: atheism is seen as a rejection of Christianity/Islam/Judaism and as a cohesive moral philosophy or some tripe like that.
If you cast aside all of the bullshit, all that being an atheist means is that you do not believe that deities literally exist, often because of issues with their existence--on the scientific side, most commonly this is the lack of empirical evidence, and on the philosophical side issues with the existence of evil, the impossibility of true free will with an omniscient and omnipotent creator figure, &c. It's just an unfortunate fact that a lot of theists take this as a direct attack on their faith (because it's apparently evil and wrong for different people to believe and think differently), and because a lot of atheists are obnoxious asshats about it (see previous note). :|
Pick an ethical system that works for you and isn't totally corrupt; as long as you're avoiding harm to others, who cares overmuch where it came from?