Kierkagaard was one of the souls of existentialism and he was a devout Christian. Him and Nietzsche have much in common, but Kant changed everything. Kant made it clear that one can't know for certain whether there is a God or not. Therefore, Nietzsche proclaimed God is dead, and that we (Kant) have killed him. He didn't mean this enthusiastically but tragically. Tragically because:
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And thus spoke Zarathustra to the people: "The time has come for man to set himself a goal. The time has come for man to plant the seed of his highest hope. His soil is still rich enough. But one day this soil will be poor and domesticated, and no tall tree will be able to grow in it. Alas, the time is coming when man will no longer shoot the arrow of his longing beyond man, and the string of his bow will have forgotten how to whir!
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The longing which Nietzsche is talking about is for God. Since, God is dead we no longer have a reason to string our bows or aim them for something beyond man, beyond the stars. It's all quite beautiful and existential, but there's plenty of reasons for us to still string our bows and plenty of hopes to aim for, even God.
I like your quote. Everyone goes through despair. It's part of the human condition. We in this forum know this quite intimately, atheistic or otherwise.
I once read a book, the author's last name was Hughes I believe. It was when I was in my intro to philosophy class. The main thesis of the book was that religion mattered because it created meaning. Existentialism is all about creating meaning also, it's just taking a different approach. Still, the big step in life is to find meaning and a purpose.
With religion you were born with a meaning and a purpose, but existentialism turns that on it's head and says FIRST you were born THEN it's your duty to give YOURSELF meaning. It's not given to you by god, it's self defined.