"Is this a real person?
Are there many of these in America?"

yes, Ake....there are quite a few of these in America.

Slag...you move back & forth from poetic musings to facts & reason, and yet you assume you have stated an obvious truth in the poetry because it sounds so...ummmm...wonderful and uplifting.

I have NO difficulty in appreciating "...things like beauty, love, nobility... " without recourse to assumptions of " righteousness or spirit" as causal forces. I have no problem with contemplating the complex majesty of the Universe without ANY assumptions as to its origin. It is not an issue that I am capable of dealing with, so I just follow what astronomy & mathematics are able to deduce about what we CAN see, and don't try to evalute what various religions try to tell us about what we CAN'T see.
   (did you ever hear the story about the lady who asserted that the world was supported on the back of a giant turtle? An astronomer asked her, "but what does the turtle stand on?" ..she replied, "hmmmppf! Don't try to fool me with THAT trick, young man! It's turtles all the way down!")
Silly story? Yeah, but people BELIEVE things like that, and the real point is that the astronomer didn't know either...he just knew that "turtles" was not a convincing theory. Saying, "I can't understand it, I guess God did it" is an understandable conclusion in historical perspective, but no stronger than "turtles" if you demand evidence. That IS why we talk about 'belief' in God...he sure doesn't pop in regularly to clarify confusing details.