Unexpected challenges to atheism

Chris Arnade has a Ph.D in physics and spent 20 years working as a trader on Wall Street [not an unusual career transition]. He lost faith in Wall Street and now photographs drug addicts in the poorest neighbourhood of Wall Street. He is an atheist and has an interesting article in the Guardian The people who challenged my atheism most were drug addicts and prostitutes. Here is the conclusion:

I want to go back to [my] 16-year-old self and tell him to shut up with the "see how clever I am attitude". I want to tell him to appreciate how easy he had it, with a path out. A path to riches.
I also see Richard Dawkins differently. I see him as a grown up version of that 16-year-old kid, proud of being smart, unable to understand why anyone would believe or think differently from himself. I see a person so removed from humanity and so removed from the ambiguity of life that he finds himself judging those who think differently.
I see someone doing what he claims to hate in others. Preaching from a selfish vantage point.