Sometimes it happens that in times of distress and fear, or under enemy attacks, people open up to the spiritual.
Atheists may shed a lot of intellectual husks and find an inner kernel of faith.
But even when such an inner wellspring exists, even when it expresses something real, it is transient, it cannot last.
It is a temporary, soothing solution, but on the whole it cannot have a continuous existence.
When a peaceful time arrives, and the heavy material burden is lifted from both soul and body, the spiritual issues surface again.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
From as essay, "The Blessing of Peace" by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz