They may not be absolute atheists because as stated almost nothing can be proven or disproven absolutely.
There are no gods. Every god suggested, proposed, claimed, suspected and or/hoped for has been the product of human imagination. I don't have to disprove them. None of them are real. Until someone can show me, and I mean show me as in right in front of my fucking face, a god, I will continue to say that there are none, without any shadow of a doubt.
Yes, I may be wrong. But I don't think so for even a second, so hence none of my energy is spent on doubt.
You can play all the games you want with semantics, epidemic, but until believers have something to show for a god besides their words, they have nothing to show me.
If only one god, throughout all of history, had been proposed and remained invisible, if only one god had been proposed and nobody had ever modified said deity for selfish purposes, then I might take a little more time to listen. If there was only that one story, world-wide, and it had no variation, the concept might get a little of my attention. Even without proof.
But that is not the case. In any sense of the word. Hence it is all bull, and I don't have to turn on the part of my brain that I use to believe things to accept or reject it. I reject it outright.
I can prove that there are absolute idiots, which account for all god stories. I don't have to play any games. There are no gods. No proof required. Because not one shred of evidence that there is a god or are multiple gods has ever been put forth. That is why I can tell people who insist otherwise to shove off.