Originally Posted by
Sapling 
Here is how they answer that in the Big Book first edition.P55
Actually we were fooling ourselves, for deep down in every man, woman, and child, is the fundamental idea of God. It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things, but in some form or other it is there. For faith in a Power greater than ourselves, and miraculous demonstrations of that power in human lives, are facts as old as man himself.
We finally saw that faith in some kind of God was a part of our make-up, just as much as the feeling we have for a friend.
Here we see very clearly where the "bashing" really started. Bill Wilson is saying that there are no atheists -- that they are only fooling themselves. I could be wrong, but I reckon a few atheists might disagree with that notion.