The most dangerous type of atheism is not theoretical atheism, but practical atheism... And the world, even the church, is filled up with people who pay lip service to God and not life service. And there is always a danger that we will make it appear externally that we believe in God when internally we don’t. We say with our mouths that we believe in Him, but we live with our lives like He never existed… that’s a dangerous type of atheism.
And I think, my friends, that that is the thing that has happened in America. That we have unconsciously left God behind....
We just became so involved in getting our big bank accounts that we unconsciously forgot about God—we didn’t mean to do it.
We became so involved in getting our nice luxurious cars… that it became much more convenient to ride out to the beach on a Sunday afternoon than to come to church that morning.
We became so involved and fascinated by the intricacies of television that we found it a little more convenient to stay at home than to come to church. It was an unconscious thing. We didn’t mean to do it. … We just became so involved in things that we forgot about God.
And may I say to you this morning, that none of these things can ever be real substitutes for God. … For long before any of these came into existence, we needed God. And long after they will have passed away, we will still need God.
-Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.