Metaphysics - Does materialism ultimately lead to atheism?

In the strictest definition of materialism which is defined as the belief that only matter and its physical properties are real and that mind, thoughts and the like are simply manifestations of matter then not only is materialism atheistic at face value, but it is also a rejection of the idea of self and freewill which makes materialism altogether deterministic. If this were the pessimistic reality, there would be little reason to contemplate philosophy in the first place. We could all go on our merry way with little concern for what we do or think for it is all a matter of clockwork anyway.

However, I personally reject the notion that materialism – when defined more liberally as the belief in a material reality – ultimately leads to atheism. In fact I think that idea to be down right absurd. Furthermore, to refute materialism by a strict adherence to idealism, as Berkeley did, to be a miserably flawed notion and at best pathetically kneejerk. In the first chapter of the Bible in the book of Genesis (a book Berkeley surely must have read) it says that the first thing God made were the heavens and the earth, very physical realms indeed. This was well before God created mankind; thus materials are very real and important to the Creator himself, not just humanity. Thus, in the strict Judeo Christian sense which Berkley adhered, the idealist conviction that matter is a by-product of the mind is Biblically unfounded and perhaps even heretical. In fact, when we apply the same reasoning that tells us materialism leads to atheism we find that idealism (when adhered to in the strictest sense) leads to atheism as well. We come to this conclusion because if all things are a “by-product” of the mind then God too is merely a by-product of our mind. This makes God a thing to be easily dismissed as mere figment of imagination as is everything other idea. Again, I am arguing along more religious lines here to illustrate that neither materialism or idealism is in and of itself the more "holy" philosophical principle.

Thankfully, with new understanding in the world of natural science, we grasp that where the material world stops and the ideal world begins is a far more blurry line than previously surmised. Knowledge we now have from quantum physics and relativity point to the fact that matter is far more unpredictable than we once thought and that matter itself is nothing more than energy itself. If these near incomprehensible ideas hold true, the metaphysical world and the physical world are now blended in a way that must be dreadfully disconcerting to both the staunch materialist and idealist alike.