"The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a God or not. The atheist is a religious person. He believes in atheism as though it were a new religion [as Dostoyevsky said]….according to Renan, "The day after that on which the world should no longer believe in God, atheists would be the wretchedest of all men."
Eric Hoffer, The True Believer