As a sociologist, I can not rely on naturalism or materialism (especially methodological naturalism).

The study of social life would be impossible from any of those positions.

Thus it is important to understand the epistemological and ontological basis of all worldviews, even if they do not lead to truth. It is enough that people believe them to be true (because sociology is not about truth, but about how people make sense of the world.

Having said that:

Here is the way I see it, as afar as claims of the supernatural go, there are three possibilities:

1. gods have an effect on the physical world.
2. gods have no effect on the physical world.
3. gods do not exist.

The first option can be tested and no reliable/repeatable evidence has ever emerged of this proposition.

The last two options might as well be the same: they are irrelevant in the everyday world in which we live.

That is the basis for my atheism: that gods are unnecessary and irrelevant (no there is no utility in believing in them).