“He was also a very bitter atheist”
Not bitter at all and a seeker, not n atheist. Perhaps the greatest mind of our time. His guide to Shakespear was also unbelievably great.
That is what I thought until he wrote one of his regular columns in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction shortly before his death in which he made his position abundantly clear. I remember being disappointed in him for reaching such a conclusion based on pride alone.