Reply #2: Sins are not washed away by mere words.

[RB TexLa]

One must be truly sorrowful for their sins, accept a penitence and reject or be working to reject their sins to receive forgiveness. Even protestant Christians theologically believe in serving a penitence for their sins although they have no formal rite for it. I'm sure other religions have ways of dealing with breaches of their accepted codes, I just haven't studied them. For an atheist the concept of sin is non-existent as sin is a theological concept, being actions or thoughts that removes one from a relationship with God, there the individual's concept of morality and ethics determines their cause of action when they violate such boundaries.