If there really is a god, and he answers those who come to him...?

Question

then why had he never appeared to me in the past when i sincerely searched for him and asked him to give me a sign?

This was back when i had as much belief in a god as i ever had, and at that time, when no response came to my many attempts to seek him that i became more and more agnostic.... finally to end up an atheist.

I can clearly see now that those people who I've talked to on the subject of how they "know" or believe god is real is purely a post hoc rationalization. They have found some reason to believe their prayers have been answered enough times to rationalize a belief in god. It seems that the more open you are to believing anything is an act of god, the more prone you are to believing he exists.

What are your thoughts?

If you can't pick out the post hoc rationalizations from the answers already provided, i suggest you do some critical thinking exercises... there are quite a few already.

Very good examples of what I've discovered to be the truth about god.

Answer 1

My thoughts are that people are scared that the universe is governed by laws of nature and chaotic chance, so they believe in a deity. Anytime something good happens, especially when they wish for it, it's a gift. When something bad happens it's a test.

It's an interesting way of dealing with the 50/50 odds.

Answer 2

Part of the problem is that a lot more people talk about faith in God than actually believe in it. There must be included those who believe they SHOULD believe, and so say they believe, they have faith, etc. I did that for some time, since my mother was a Methdist Sunday school teacher. Gradually I came to realize that any god worth worshiping would not be fooled by my "going through the motions" while being more and more cynical all the time.

The problem for me was the concept of faith: belief in the absence of evidence, or even in the face of evidence to the contrary. That sounds too much like insanity to me. So I stopped going to church after I did the confirmation ritual just to please my mother.

I remember hearing about "answered prayers" when events were in conformity with what someone prayed for. But I knew even then that if they did not get what they prayed for (and very possibly paid for), they would rationalize it with "God's plan" or "he's testing me" rhetoric.

Answer 3

Jesus to "doubting" Thomas: "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

I know what you're saying.....I've used the same argument.

You say at that time that you had "as much belief in a god as I ever had". You refer to 'a god' here, not God. Perhaps what you believed in was not the almighty God but the possibility....and possibilities don't appear to us.

Second, when you say you sought Him you were not seeking His face, you were seeking His hand. You wanted some PROOF in front of your face, and God wants you to have the faith of a little child. You wanted God to appear to you in some way, still trying to be in control....still dictating to God not only what, but how, you will believe. That you will not have faith except on your terms, and that is not the humbleness of a heart that is truly repentant and wanting to follow the example of Christ.

So what do you do? You decide that because God didn't do what YOU wanted Him to do (instead of the other way around) then "those people who [you've] talked to on the subject of how they 'know' or believe god is real is purely a post hoc rationalization".

Getting to a place in life where you are bowed down, at your lowest, KNOWING that you need a savior is not the easiest place to be. Turning from your selfishness and accepting what God gives us AND BEING THANKFUL FOR IT rather than expecting God to give us whatever we THINK He should is necessary.

It sounds like you are not willing to believe in anything that doesn't do what YOU want it to do.....and with that attitude, it doesn't surprise me that you didn't see anything.

I can say this because the last six months of my life have been some of the blackest ever. I was raised in abuse, raped by my father, abandoned by my mother....have had depression off and on since childhood...I could go on. I got laid off in January and life has SUCKED in ways I can't tell you these last few months.

And in that time I have cursed at God. Yelled, begged. I have cried more in the last two months than I think I ever have in my life. I have asked over and over and over again, "Why don't you just toss me something here, God? HELP ME"....

And in the end, after my tirades, I know one thing....that God is real, no matter what my circumstances, no matter what my feelings, no matter what others tell me who don't believe.

It's easy to believe when God hits you over the head...it's harder to believe 'without seeing'.....but it makes you a better person. It makes you stronger, more open, less selfish. And oddly enough in the end, it brings you closer to God. More sure of Him.

I hope you won't give up.

Answer 4

Jesus answered this:

Luke 11:29-30 Now as the crowds continued to throng around Jesus, he went on to say, "This generation is an evil generation. It craves a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. (30) For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of Man will be a sign to this generation.

Jesus' resurrection was the sign and it was already given. If you want more proof than that, you can check out the many prophecies that were fulfilled in the Bible. I think perhaps you should do some more searching.

Answer 5

It's true we are prone to see what we expect to see. Our effect on our own observable world is profound. However, your question begs a deeper understanding of our expectations and how we deal with their delivery. I have no idea what you asked of God during your prayers nor is it any of any ones business. But, there are many how ask for trivial, comfort, materialistic, and self inflating blessings.

Is rain an answer in a drought stricken area or just a natural phenomena? Is any natural phenomena an answer to a prayer? Or is it all just patterns of nature that just happened?

On a personal level what allows you to think? Try to explain how the firing of neurons across synapses can create thought, memory, appreciation, love, planning, creation, or about a billion more things that can not be written on this page. How did you decide what to wear today? Why did you care? Can you create a freestone peach, or a single atom of one?

Why do they taste so good? Evolution? Is taste even needed in a biological system? Smell? How about color? sound? mind?

My point is why not just say thank you? And take a serious look into what can be discovered about God through a serious study of his creation.

By the way you are one of them.

Answer 6

Depends on the sign you are looking for.
Believing in God is easy. Asking for specific prayers to be answered to the way you want with instant gratification, are very few and far between. Signs come in various methods and not just visible and the physical.
God is not a trained poodle.
A walk of faith is just that, a walk of faith.
It is not a test or an attempt.
You know, do or do not, there is no try.
Besides, debating the Bible is easier than studying and learning.

Get A Grip

Answer 7

I went skiing in Quebec for three days with a bunch of guys from my work. We were supposed to leave on the morning of the fourth day, but when I woke up I found that almost two feet of powder had fallen overnight. The other guys all had to leave, but I decided to go back to the hill and enjoy this amazing snow. The day was brilliantly lit, the sun was warm and the skiing was probably the most exhilarating I have ever experienced. I skied the whole morning and went for lunch in the lodge at the top of the mountain in a state of perfect tranquility. While I was eating lunch something happened that to this day I have trouble putting into words. It was as if the roof of the lodge dissolved and the pure energy of God's love poured into my heart with the intensity of a super nova. It was as if I was bathing in the pure glory of God for a brief instant. I thought my heart was going to explode. I was so joyful that I had to stop skiing so I got back into the car and started driving home. The intensity of the joy was so great that I could barely keep my mind on the road. Somehow I made it back home in one piece. My recommendation for those who wish to have an experience of God is to pray. Pray every day. Pray every hour. Pray every minute if you can arrange your life such that you can pray and work at the same time. Keep praying. And be patient. The journey towards God is measured in years. Pax et caritas.

Answer 8

I'm curious about something. I did the same thing when I became an atheist (kept looking for signs, kept praying for signs, et cetera). The problem was the signs I was looking for. I wanted God Himself to come down to me, or send lightning, or come down in a burning bush, or SOMETHING like that.

It doesn't work that way.

It's kind of like the story of the man who drowned because he thought God would save him, and then when he got to heaven, he asked God why he didn't. And God said, "I sent you a boat, and a helicopter. What more do you want?"

We do the same thing. We ask God for a sign, and He gives us a woman surviving eight days in her car, trapped in a ravine. He gives us a man who gets attacked by a bear, the man prays, and the bear goes away. He gives us a woman who is cured of heart failure, people cured of cancer...and we rationalize it. "Well, it would have happened anyway. It was a misdiagnosis. Amazing things can happen with a placebo."

What more do you want? There are signs all the time that God exists...but people rationalize it away.

Answer 9

God knows your motive and heart - better than you do.

He has a way of testing hearts and motives.

Your departure from Him would seem to prove Him right don't you think?


Yet still His promises remain true.

Luke 11/5-13, following after His teaching of His disciples about prayer, shows the persistence required.

The promise of John 6/37 holds true. You have stopped going to Him.

Perhaps you need to go on His terms and not yours? Perhaps you need to come to an end of yourself?


You show yourself, even to me, not to be that serious in your seeking.

Do you think that we who have found God, Who has graciously revealed Himself, haven't been through all this? And more.

I die, except He answer. Neither do I desire any other.

Is it really God and His righteousness that you want? Matthew 6/33. That you speak of wanting a sign suggests a bad motive or heart. Remember what Christ said of such,
But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.

You have even had that sign but it is not enough for you. Consider also His insistence upon the sufficiency of the Bible in Luke 16 - And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

And you have even had that. As indicated it suggests a bad heart or motive.



You are so sure in your reasoning but can't see that to speak like that is foolishness. Do you honestly think that what you say condemns God? Methinks that you are too full of yourself.

God is near to the lowly and humble but far from the proud.

I am sorry but I am glad He is. I am so, so glad it doesn't depend upon my cleverness or strength - and my education would say I am clever. Nor my ability or goodness. Then certainly I would be lost. It is simple enough for even a child. Or is that your problem? Like Naaman the Syrian you expect something that suits your status or importance, or cleverness? Or the grand and sincere way you sought Him?

It is He Who gives the faith. True faith comes from Him. It is all of Him and nothing of man. Repentance, faith, revelation, salvation, life, knowledge.

That is why we must seek Him.


You forget too, that God gives His Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. What is your reasoning next to God Himself? To dismiss the experience of others as you do is presumptuous. Whilst all may not be genuine yet there is sufficient evidence against you.

You are so, so far off in what you say. Forgive me, but you sound a little like a spoilt child that can't have what he wants and on his terms, and so throws a tantrum. That will not hurt God but yourself.

The fault is not with God. It never is.

Still He waits.

If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. Genesis 4/7.

Why then don't you return to seeking Him - but on His terms?

Just my thoughts, since you asked.

Answer 10

I don't think God is one to appear simply because someone asks to see Him. I'm LDS, so my example comes from the Book of Mormon (which btw, not to push my religion on you, I would consider checking out given your situation. If you read this book and pray diligently about it, I guarantee you WILL get an answer from God. A big promise, but it's true :) ) In Jacob chapter 7, verses 13 thru 14, it says after a sign from God is asked for, "what am I that I should tempt God to show unto thee a sign in the thing which thou knowest to be true?..And thy will, O Lord, be done, and not mine." So I think it's what your friends said, yes, that enough prayers being answered can confirm a belief, but it's also raw faith. Which is obviously one of the hardest things to swallow. Give God another chance, have faith, and as you become more in tune with Him and His will, you'll be SO glad you did. Obviously, to each his own, I don't want to tell you what to do, but give it a chance and I think you'll be glad you did :)