Petri and Mathew,

Your discusion on the "reality" of atoms is interesting, but it
would seem that you are verging on the question "Is anything real":
that is, since observation is not 100% reliable, how can we say
that anything is "real".  I don't think this was the intention
of the original question, since you now define-out the word
"real" so that nothing can meet its criteria.
Just a thought.

Brian /-|-\