Do you agree that Atheists can find God?

Question

Does God exist? If so, why can't atheists find Him?

Many Christians were once atheists. In fact, you could visit almost any Christian church and find members of the congregation who formerly did not believe in God. So it is not true to say that atheists cannot find God, because countless numbers have found Him.

But the Bible gives a reason why many atheists don’t find God. It says:

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

This shows that the reason many atheists never find God is because they never honestly look for Him. Christians who have been spiritually born-again know that God does reward those who seek Him — but not those who don't seek Him or those who don't care.

It is probably fair to say that most born-again Christians wonder whether atheists have a screw loose in their brains. To Christians who have received God's Holy Spirit in their lives, and know how real this is, the atheist's claim that God doesn't exist seems like childish rebellion.

An atheist who tells a Christian there is no God might as well say the Christian has no body. The Christian just thinks it is a ridiculous thing to say.. Well, I do.

An atheist once said in a debate that he could never believe in anything that he could not see, taste, hear, smell, or touch. His opponent asked him how he knew he had a brain, if he had never seen, tasted, heard, smelled, or touched it.

The atheist replied that even though he had never seen, tasted, heard, smelled, or touched his brain, the fact that brain experts had always found a brain in everyone they examined meant that he too probably had a brain. But he admitted that on this line of reasoning it was possible he may or may not have a brain, just as there may or may not be a God.

His opponent pointed out that there had been some progress, because now that the atheist had admitted there could be a God he was no longer an atheist, but an agnostic (someone who doesn’t know whether God exists or not).

And this really is the best that scoffers can come up with. To know that God doesn’t exist means you would have to know everything, because if there is any information you don’t know, God could be among that. You would also have to be everywhere at the same time, because if you were not, God might be somewhere you were not.

Why will some atheists never find God, even though God has promised to reward them if they diligently seek Him in faith? Because they never honestly look. Christians need to help them to see the wonderful truth of Hebrews 11:6, not look down on them.

John.

There has never been a Christian who lost God, he/she lost itself.

Answer 1

What a bloody load of crap, it is not worth the time it would take to refute all that. i am sure someone will do an admirable job.

Lets also not forget about how many christians lose god. The atheists numbers are growing. go back 50 years and you would be hard pressed to get 2% of the population to admit they were atheists. Our numbers are growning. Yours are not.

Answer 2

Okay, by your logic...I should still be a Christian. I was born and raised a Christian. I was very devout, prayed every night as a child and as an adult prayed often. I truly believed and felt Jesus' presence and believed that God loved me. But through the years, after never having a prayer answered, and never feeling God's presence any more, I became desperate, changing religions often and studying the Bible. All my search did was show me how the Bible was false. I knew then that religion wasn't true, but clung to the believe that there was a creator. But logic told me...that little voice inside that lets you know what is true and what is false...that if part of it was a lie, it all was a lie. I knew in my heart there was no loving God out there, and all the Christians who claimed he was in their lives were lying to themselves. If there was a God, he would be a part of our lives. He would not be distant. He would not allow good people to suffer and bad people to go unscathed. He just wouldn't. If he exists, he is either evil or impotent.

atheist

Answer 3

Atheists have told me (although I don't believe it) that if End of Times actually happens and they face a GOD they will ask to walk back into the inferno of Volcanic Earth.

I find that hard to believe.

One Agnostic told me the truth. He'd stay with God in an instant if that really happened.

Given a choice of FIRE and BRIMSTONE or a LIFE UNDER GOD, he'd stay with GOD!

I'll wager so will most Atheists.

Answer 4

I can see what you are getting at and I think more of the answer is revealed here:

2 Timothy 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

2Thesalonians 2:11: And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie

2Thesalonians 2:12: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

This could also be relevant:

Matthew 13:15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Answer 5

Nobody has ever found God and born again Christians are seriously nuts. The only thing that Born again are ever able to demonstrate is that they are the classic crazies. Do you realize that almost everytime they hear of some woman doing the mass murder thing on her kids she is a born again christian. Schizophrenics hearing voices and thinking god is talking at them.
You are correct in one thing. The born agains are so far out of their minds that they are permanently beyond the reach of reason. It is doubtful if even heavy medication would restore a semblance of sanity to them.
Notice the preponderance of people who have serious brain damage from drug abuse and alcohol in the ranks of the born again movement. It almost seems like a requirement of the faith.

Answer 6

You can use this line of reasoning to argue for any entity. It doesn't prove a thing.

"I don't believe in unicorns."'
"Well that's because you're not truly seeking them. There's still the possibility that you'll come to find unicorns some day, like I have."

You can't shift the burden of proof like this, and say that it's the non-believer's fault for not "seeking" the deity you have in mind. Don't forget that there are many atheists (and I would even say the majority of them) who were Christians at some point in their lives.

Answer 7

I was an atheist at one time, and I agree that most people were atheists at one time.

The books, "Dinner with a Perfect Stranger," and "A Day with a Perfect Stranger," both written by David Gregory, are absolutely fantastic books, and explain many main topics of debate in an anamorphic manner. He makes it very easy to understand.

=)

Answer 8

I don't know that we can really look for God, but this question is playing hard on my mind. Oddly enough it's been on my mind since yesterday.
The truth is, Roman 8:28-31 suggests that God calls us.
I think that we then choose to accept that call and believe at that moment. Atheists simply choose to not believe that call.
God gave us freedom of choice.
I also think that if anyone sincerely goes to God and asks Him to reveal Himself to them, I believe that that prayer will be answered.
God is not a 'divine rapist' (pardon the vinacular) that he would force Himself to be anyone's lord and savior. Despite his sovereignty and majesty He gives everyman a choice and appeals to us all in different ways, and so to answer your question, I think that even Atheists can "find" God if they open their hears to them. But if they did that, then they're hardly Atheists anymore then are they?

-B

Answer 9

That was too long to read all of it. But, no I don't agree. I was raised Lutheran and through a combination of factors (that are too long to get into) I lost my faith. There is pretty much no way I'll become a Christian again.

Answer 10

Those who claim logic and reason as their excuse need to visit:
http://www.reasons.org/
http://www.arn.org/
http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/
http://www.christian-thinktank.com/
http://www.tektonics.org/

=EDITED=

Icarus62
Your logic in axioms is flawed in it's assumption of who God is.
A fundamental mistake lies in the assumption that a divine designer is an entity comparable in complexity to the universe. As an unembodied mind, God is a remarkably simple entity. As a non-physical entity, a mind is not composed of parts, and its salient properties, like self-consciousness, rationality, and volition, are essential to it. In contrast to the contingent and variegated universe with all its inexplicable quantities and constants, a divine mind is startlingly simple. Certainly such a mind may have complex ideas—it may be thinking, for example, of the infinitesimal calculus—, but the mind itself is a remarkably simple entity. You have evidently confused a mind's ideas, which may, indeed, be complex, with a mind itself, which is an incredibly simple entity. Therefore, postulating a divine mind behind the universe most definitely does represent an advance in simplicity, for whatever that is worth.

Answer 11

I believe God is always calling to us, but we must desire to hear. It took me a very long time to hear, which only goes to show there is always hope for nonbelievers.

2 Timithy 4:3
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.