It seems to me that most atheists have got stuck half way along their line of enquiry.  They’ve reached the point when they’ve realized that the concept of god they’ve been brought up with is false, but then, instead of transcending that concept, they’ve retreated from it.
We’re called to transcendence. That’s the message of the Upanishads, the Tao Te Ching, the Damapada, the Talmud and the New Testament.  Every hero in every myth of every culture in the world is an example of transcendence.  Yet every hero has been stuck at some time in his or her journey.
Many religious people are stuck the wrong side of transcendence and are little better off in their spiritual experience than atheists.  They go through the form, but know little or nothing of the depths, the height and the breadth of the love of God.
Meister Eckhart, the 13th century Christian mystic. said that the human heart is overlayed with many skins, some as thick as bear’s and oxen. All spiritual practice is aimed, not at lifting us into a new place but at removing those skins.  Spiritual advancement is not a matter of achievement but surrender – a letting go.  Only through surrender can we discover what has always lain at the very heart of each one of us – the light that lightens every man, according to John.  We experience it as peace, love and joy and this experience enables us to see the world anew and God anew, and that’s transcendence.  When we awaken we discover that that which we seek, as a Muslim sage said,  is nearer to us than our juggler vein. Paul, quoting a Greek poet, told the Athenians that “He is not very far from any one of us”.  Quoting a Stoic philosopher he added, “In him we live and move and have our being.”
The Upanishads say that those who see all things as themselves and themselves as all things have no fear.  That’s because, as the Hindus saw it, all things are Brahman.  Spiritual experience is not something to be achieved, like winning a gold medal in the Olympics.  We are in it and of it.   Our spiritual lives begin when we step into the void of no-understanding and realize (making real) that which is already within each one of us.   When we discover our faith, it’s living in the spirit is as easy as stepping out of a boat and walking on water.

See this short video by astronaut Edgar Mitchell to begin exploring some of the physics behind transcendence: Click here.