I think the difference is less theist / atheist and more personal / impersonal. For an Orlanthi, the world's cosmological infrastructure is composed of divine relationships, the connections between gods and between gods and men. Father/son, older brother/younger brother, tyrant/rebel, etc... forces have an irreducible personal quality.
What makes the West so strange is it inverts this: all personalities and personal relationships are inescapably governed by impersonal forces, embodied in law. This would be horrible for a true theists, as it would suggest (in their view) that the world is, in the end analysis, meaningless.
All Malkioni would see the impersonal as the last thing we can understand. Henotheists would worship gods, but know it wasn't REALLY about them. Sorcerers are rather obvious. Those who believe in the Invisible God believe in exactly that: something that is invisible, and beyond their ability to perceive and understand. The closest we can get to Him is His Law.
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