I’ve never found it particularly useful to discover whether someone does or doesn’t believe in God. I’ve met cruel or kind theists at about the same rate as cruel or kind non-theists.
The pivotal issue, it seems to me, is not whether someone believes in God, but whether one believes in the unified ground of of truth, beauty and goodness to which the symbol “God” should refer. The symbols of religion become divisive idols if we believe in them literally. We end up fighting over our symbols of unity, lying over our symbols of truth and reducing our symbols of beauty to boring rituals.
When we listen to religious symbols as beacons calling us to a common cosmic song it is easy to join hands with those who use other symbols, as well as those who do not choose to use religious symbols at all. A symbol, after all, almost by definition is pointing beyond itself to a wider and deeper experience of reality. A symbol should be a bridge to greater understanding not an intellectual resting home.
When Dr. King sat in jail, abandoned by so many in the church, he sometimes found inspiration in the works of the Existentialist, Albert Camus. Camus’ atheistic humanism led him into the same kind of passionate commitment to humanity King had discovered through his own theistic faith. In his lonely cell, Dr. King was comforted by the Atheist’s clarity and compassion.
Camus once wrote a beautiful “hymn” in the form of a letter: “In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love… In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile… In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm… I realized, through it all, that… In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”
One can easily see why Dr. King would consider the Atheist Camus a close comrade in the struggle for love and justice. Symbols are like the glistening light on the surface of the ocean. They are beacons of an unthinkable depth out of which we all come, and of an incomprehensible breadth which holds us all.