How will you recognize God as an atheist if you do not believe in him? God could be standing right in front of you and you would reject him because the atheist belief system in your mind does not accept his existence. First step to meeting Chris is to believe he is real. We may be better off or not worse off as atheist than being religious - but only for a short time to experience life outside Gods real while we still remember what it was like with him. Sadly most don’t get to experience both sides and are only served one extreme. I grew up with an atheist mindset myself and always felt “blank”. Only since I’ve found Jesus do I feel whole and as if I finally understand what I was looking for all along. With Him I feel at peace within myself. We absolutely need Jesus. But we don’t necessarily need religion to find him was my points
That's actually a very good question. What would it take to convince an atheist that something is God as opposed to some other explanation? I don't think it's possible to get that answer. There is always an alternate explanation in simulation theory. The holy spirit could just be a drug trip. There is always some alternate explanation, and so it's futile to even attempt to know whether or not God exists. That doesn't mean we should stop looking. Maybe we can know whether or not it's the alternate explanation.
Do you think that atheists have to actively reject some belief in a god/gods? That the human brain is automatically pre-set to believe in a God (we'll obviously go with Christianity here) and atheists are just being contrary?
Every atheist I know (and I know many) wouldn't have any trouble in believing in a god if they met them in the afterlife. If there was clear evidence that a god exists, such as being in their actual, physical presence (even if it's in the afterlife).
I'm curious to know how many atheists you know personally. What are you using as a basis for what you believe atheists think and what they would do in those situations? Have you sat and talked with them about their opinions on the matter?
I absolutely believe that some atheist will have such a closed mindset that it doesn’t allow for the existence of God. I was not talking about the afterlife - when your soul is freed from the mind prison. I’m talking about here and now. Would an atheist recognize the presence of God? I don’t believe they all would. Perhaps some if they have know ln God before becoming atheist but for those who never have I don’t believe they would. As I’ve mentioned I myself grew up with an atheist mindset. I had a remarkable spiritual experience in my 20s which sparked the beginning of a very long awakening. It wasn’t until another 20 years later once I accepted Jesus as my savior that I finally realized it was God who had stood before me in my 20s trying his very hardest to wake me up and guide me on the right path. He had looked with his eyes straight into mine and yet I did not understand who he was. 20 years it took me because of my small closed mindset. Had I only known Jesus was real I could have believed it then but it apparently took me two decades, a pandemic and an election steal (2020) to bring me to my knees and surrender to Jesus Christ. I also had never before then heard the Gospel and once I did it unlocked my mind. The Great Awakening truly is biblical.
The person that you were responding to was speaking about meeting God after he died. That's why I mentioned that.
That's part of that whole "proof of existence" thing that's important to many atheists. Obviously if they were dead, and meeting God personally, that would certainly be proof of His existence.
Would atheists recognize a god (any god, not just the Christian God) without what they think is adequate proof of existence? Most likely not. It's pretty difficult to believe something is true if it makes no sense to you, and there is no evidence it exists.
I do find it odd, though, that you give the impression that you believe atheists know deep down that God is real, but they just want to be contrary and not believe it (or pretend to not believe, if they really believe deep down, I suppose).
If that's not what you're intending to convey, then I apologize.
It's just that this is the attitude I see often from many people. They seem to think that atheists are somehow forcing themselves to not believe in god/gods.
That's why I say I find what you're saying is odd, if you were at one point an atheist, or "had an atheist mindset". But every atheist is different, and there's no guidebook detailing what atheists do and do not believe. So I suppose it's possible that there are people that are somehow convincing themselves god/gods doesn't exist and that they're an atheist. 🤷♀️
But please realize that just because you had a "small closed mindset" does not mean that atheists in general have that same mindset. It's simply projection, and that's not a solid basis for an argument.
Edited to add:
I want to make it clear that when I talk about arguments here, I'm not talking about people having an angry or heated discussion.
I don't know why, but so many people here seem to think that's the only way to use that word.
When I'm talking about arguments I'm talking about this:
a reason or set of reasons given with the aim of persuading others that an action or idea is right or wrong
How will you recognize God as an atheist if you do not believe in him? God could be standing right in front of you and you would reject him because the atheist belief system in your mind does not accept his existence. First step to meeting Chris is to believe he is real. We may be better off or not worse off as atheist than being religious - but only for a short time to experience life outside Gods real while we still remember what it was like with him. Sadly most don’t get to experience both sides and are only served one extreme. I grew up with an atheist mindset myself and always felt “blank”. Only since I’ve found Jesus do I feel whole and as if I finally understand what I was looking for all along. With Him I feel at peace within myself. We absolutely need Jesus. But we don’t necessarily need religion to find him was my points
That's actually a very good question. What would it take to convince an atheist that something is God as opposed to some other explanation? I don't think it's possible to get that answer. There is always an alternate explanation in simulation theory. The holy spirit could just be a drug trip. There is always some alternate explanation, and so it's futile to even attempt to know whether or not God exists. That doesn't mean we should stop looking. Maybe we can know whether or not it's the alternate explanation.
Do you think that atheists have to actively reject some belief in a god/gods? That the human brain is automatically pre-set to believe in a God (we'll obviously go with Christianity here) and atheists are just being contrary?
Every atheist I know (and I know many) wouldn't have any trouble in believing in a god if they met them in the afterlife. If there was clear evidence that a god exists, such as being in their actual, physical presence (even if it's in the afterlife).
I'm curious to know how many atheists you know personally. What are you using as a basis for what you believe atheists think and what they would do in those situations? Have you sat and talked with them about their opinions on the matter?
I absolutely believe that some atheist will have such a closed mindset that it doesn’t allow for the existence of God. I was not talking about the afterlife - when your soul is freed from the mind prison. I’m talking about here and now. Would an atheist recognize the presence of God? I don’t believe they all would. Perhaps some if they have know ln God before becoming atheist but for those who never have I don’t believe they would. As I’ve mentioned I myself grew up with an atheist mindset. I had a remarkable spiritual experience in my 20s which sparked the beginning of a very long awakening. It wasn’t until another 20 years later once I accepted Jesus as my savior that I finally realized it was God who had stood before me in my 20s trying his very hardest to wake me up and guide me on the right path. He had looked with his eyes straight into mine and yet I did not understand who he was. 20 years it took me because of my small closed mindset. Had I only known Jesus was real I could have believed it then but it apparently took me two decades, a pandemic and an election steal (2020) to bring me to my knees and surrender to Jesus Christ. I also had never before then heard the Gospel and once I did it unlocked my mind. The Great Awakening truly is biblical.
Source; “I was once an atheist”.
The person that you were responding to was speaking about meeting God after he died. That's why I mentioned that.
That's part of that whole "proof of existence" thing that's important to many atheists. Obviously if they were dead, and meeting God personally, that would certainly be proof of His existence.
Would atheists recognize a god (any god, not just the Christian God) without what they think is adequate proof of existence? Most likely not. It's pretty difficult to believe something is true if it makes no sense to you, and there is no evidence it exists.
I do find it odd, though, that you give the impression that you believe atheists know deep down that God is real, but they just want to be contrary and not believe it (or pretend to not believe, if they really believe deep down, I suppose).
If that's not what you're intending to convey, then I apologize.
It's just that this is the attitude I see often from many people. They seem to think that atheists are somehow forcing themselves to not believe in god/gods.
That's why I say I find what you're saying is odd, if you were at one point an atheist, or "had an atheist mindset". But every atheist is different, and there's no guidebook detailing what atheists do and do not believe. So I suppose it's possible that there are people that are somehow convincing themselves god/gods doesn't exist and that they're an atheist. 🤷♀️
But please realize that just because you had a "small closed mindset" does not mean that atheists in general have that same mindset. It's simply projection, and that's not a solid basis for an argument.
Edited to add: I want to make it clear that when I talk about arguments here, I'm not talking about people having an angry or heated discussion.
I don't know why, but so many people here seem to think that's the only way to use that word.
When I'm talking about arguments I'm talking about this:
I believe there are two types of atheist; those who never believed in God, and those who have turned so far away from him they no longer believe.