Well there is only one. Of course, man has been creating his own gods for all his history.
Atheists aren't any different. It's just a matter of semantics. They have their own creation myths -- the universe existed unchanged forever, or there is a infinite multitude of universes so random chance can explain our existance or whatever.
They have their own messiahs and saints from whence they get their values. For awhile Marx sufficed for some and Freud for others. Both are now pretty much on history's ash heap.
Regardless, you missed the point. Atheists aren't anything new, although most probably think they are.
Well, atheism isn't new, but the world has changed and so has our understanding of it. In fact, some of Bacon's lines of argument against atheism have been rendered invalid by discoveries made since.
Two centuries ago, I would have been Christian for my whole life (even beyond the fact that I wouldn't have survived to my current age). So in a sense, there is a time-linked aspect to atheism...dogmatic and philosophic atheism has become supplemented by evidentiary atheism.