How do you know if a non-believer is "searching" for god?

Question

I often see theists say that, deep down, non-believers who question religion are really just searching for the truth (the assumption being that the "truth" is total belief in Jesus/God/Allah/etc.)

But what makes you think this? In my situation, I was a complete and total Christian for the first 22 years of my life. I believed in ALL of it; the infallibility of the bible, the creation, the nativity, every miracle and decree of god.

But then I started asking questions. These questions begat more questions, until I finally came to the conclusion that the only way it made sense was to have blind faith, unsupported by any real evidence, and despite glaring contradiction and historical fabrications.

THAT was my search. I didn't have some tragedy that caused me to become angry at god. I didn't become discouraged and loose my faith. I merely made the conscious decision to abandon it when I felt it became untenable.

So would you still say that I'm searching for god?

To Lovely: Yes. Absolutely. I feel freer. I feel happier with the world around me. I don't constantly worry about my friends and family who don't think the same way I do. I don't feel that the world at large is setting out to persecute me anymore. My life now compared to before is truly like night and day.

Wow, either I did an awful job at making my point.. or some people didn't bother to actually read everything I wrote. Superbird being the prime example here.

Answer 1

theists say that non-believers are really searching for the "truth" because thats what they "want" to believe just like they "want" to believe in god, unless they choose to believe in god for fear.

i congratulate you in questioning the truth. i wouldnt say your searching for "god". i think your just one of the lucky ones who realized that the "truth", as so many believe it to be, may not exist.

Answer 2

Everyone, no matter their declared positions on theology, is 'searching' for something. Even atheists, for the most part, are just rebelling against organized religion. Atheists are usually people who've been brought up in very religious families and have found the dogma/texts/theology hard to swallow. Many of them don't really disbelieve in God; they are reacting in contravention to established biblical dogma. Christianity, for example, can be such a turn-off to anyone with a logical thought process , that they reject God in whole for the contradictions of the Christian Bible.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with rejecting a certain religion and still believing in God. The two are not inseparable.

EDIT: Liker another guy said below, it doesn't sound like you're searching out the truth about God, but you are conflicted about religion. That's the point I was trying to make. God doesn't care what religion you are or if you have no religion at all. He cares about how you treat other people and His world. Blind faith is ignorant faith. God doesn't care whether you "woprship" Him or not in prayer; those are empty words if you don't do His works. He cares mostly about how you interact with all of His creation.

I believe that humans have the ability to observe and react to their environment and empathize with every other creature for a reason. We are all being tested, not in how well we memorize the religious texts that we were raised with, but how well we act upon their messages.

According to the Christian Bible, the most pious, diligent, God-fearing native of some remote place will not go to Heaven because he never heard the name Jesus Christ. I don't believe in a god that would exclude His most fervent advocates based on the fact that they are so removed from the origin of the Bible that they could have no way of hearing its message. Jesus Christ is not the only way to gain entrance to Heaven; his message is, regardlerss of who practices it.

Answer 3

You may not be consciously searching for God, but I believe that you will question your current "beliefs" sporadically throughout the rest of your life, especially seeing as you have spent so many years believing in Him. I don't think you could possibly be happy with your current ideals because humans like logic, and it doesn't seem to be logical that you could be happy to live life with bilnd faith.

And you bring up a valid point; Most definately when tragedies happen it seems to be an immediate gut reaction for human beings to either run from God in anger or draw close to Him.

Answer 4

Some explanations compensate for the lack of knowledge. For example, I also believe in invisible flying meatballs all my life, until I was introduced to the plausible idea that there was a higher being out there--a Hamburger, if you.

Sometimes it takes some thinking before you reach the right path. I had a friend who was Jehovah but then converted to Kabblah before finding peace in Spiritology

Answer 5

You don't sound like you're searching for any gods to me...but most of us desire answers to things we do not know.

Over time, when I really gave it some thought as an adult, I realized religion didn't really work for me...I liked a lot of things about paganism (nature and cycles and such) but still the whole god/dess(es) thing didn't work for me...too many contradictions, too many reasons not to believe, too much that is more plausible scientifically explained than by mythology (religion)...

So I left it behind...it simply made no sense and I decided to think for myself, instead of trust in what I'd been told simply because of who told those things to me...I'm sure they meant well, but I've always been a "show me" or "prove it" kinda person...

No searching for any god/dess(es) here...can't imagine why I'd want to...

Answer 6

You're not searching because you believe if God is there, then God is there, you don't have to look for God.

Religious people always assume that atheists/ non-believers born and raised that way, but truth is, most of them raised with religion like yourself. We found what's truth for ourselves and not letting dogma haunting us.

Answer 7

I think you are searching for something larger than yourself to help give you meaning in your life. search until you find what is right for you. The search is the best part in many ways because it makes your faith stronger when you finally find, no matter what religion or belief system you chose.

Answer 8

No, you're not searching. The only people who would say that you're "searching" are the people who can't handle the thought of anyone coming to a different conclusion than them.

Answer 9

atheists do not have confidence that each and every thing got here from not something. the fact is atheism makes no declare as to how the universe began. it in basic terms says that there is no reason to think of that a god did it. the humorous subject is, christians think of the universe got here from not something. think of roughly it, if i create a table, i don't prefer it into life I could build it out of cloth that already exists. yet curiously god can create ex nihilo. so by skill of their own definition we did come from not something. so besides, the beginning of the universe, the reason of the vast bang itself. btw the vast bang is a actuality, all of us comprehend that it happened, we are actually not completely effective why. i can respond to this slightly because of the fact i'm a physicist, yet it is not suitable to my atheism. the 1st subject that one needs to delight in is which you will not get super basic info right here. it is the difficulty we run into whilst coping with intense skill physics. on the size of the quantum or the cosmological issues in basic terms artwork in any different case. that's extremely counter intuitive and a super sort of the time there are actually not any words in human language to describe what's certainly happening. that's a international of grotesque looking math. it extremely works, quantum mechanics makes predictions so precise it's going to make you pass eyed, yet we can't describe it in human language because of the fact the regulations of the quantum international, do not carry on with in our international and vice versa. we don't comprehend how the universe began precisely, yet we do comprehend some issues. as an occasion in quantum physics you extremely can get something from not something. that's a results of the uncertainty theory little bits of skill are created actually out of not something, yet they exist for this variety of short instantaneous that it would not violate the 1st regulation. 2d, reason and result does not carry on with right here. the mechanism that reasons radioactive decay works this way. you are able to have an result and not making use of a reason, issues can in basic terms take place spontaneously. so some techniques run alongside those traces, that some sort of quantum adventure created the singularity. a nil volume ingredient that contained all of time and area and extra advantageous from there. i comprehend it is not an extremely pleasing answer, yet a super sort of this continues to be theoretical and prefer i stated it defies common language and easy experience. even i don't are attentive to it a million/2 the time. besides i desire that facilitates

Answer 10

i grew up catholic, went to catholic school, some where between my father dieing of a horrible cancer and high school, i began to question god, faith everything, i searched different churches and different religions, for many years Ive aways believed in god but i was not a faithful follower, i got lost,but i had a accident and after surgery my friend was there, i told her i was afraid, she told me to accept Jesus Christ as my savior and ask for forgiveness of my sins, believe it or not, my life changed for the better that day and has been wonderful since, i believe that i got lost and god kinda kick me in the rear until i found my way back to him, hes with me and my family every day, my faith gets stronger every day, thanks for listening to my long story, god bless you all. i would say your searching, i think we all do sometimes in our lives, just keep searching you'll find him