"If you needed life saving surgery would you accept the surgery from a person of another belief system or an atheist if they were the best surgeon around?"

I would accept a surgeon from any other belief system, because at least he/she believes in some sort of spirituality (and thus his/her connection with life is tighter); however an atheist will only pay attention to the tecnique and if the tecnique fails, he won't hope for Godly intervention and won't give that extra minute that many times saves people (because he/she doesn't believe in anything...or so he/she convinces him/herself of).

I have an experience in my family where the doctor was an atheist and when his tecnique failed he removed an uterus, just like that. Whereas if he had some kind of belief system, he would've done everything he could to have saved it (I know a doctor, catholic, who operated a lady who had a tumour glued to her uterus; I can't describe what he did, but he fought for it and he saved it, cause (so he said) that uterus was God's instrument to bring life to this world.