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Again my position is the total opposite to yours. I've also never been one who Persued God and then failed and then I became atheist like some atheists.
I've always been an atheist so Ive never considered the 'what ifs'. I've read the bible and many other religious texts out of general interest and admittedly I've read them with different colour spectacles than others so there are a lot of aspects of religion and a lot of aspects about their Gods that I really don't like. However as I'm not a believer i may not understand certain aspects as a believer might.
This is the first time I've ever gone down this line of questioning lol so I can't give you a straight out answer right now.
I've always been an atheist so Ive never considered the 'what ifs'. I've read the bible and many other religious texts out of general interest and admittedly I've read them with different colour spectacles than others so there are a lot of aspects of religion and a lot of aspects about their Gods that I really don't like. However as I'm not a believer i may not understand certain aspects as a believer might.
This is the first time I've ever gone down this line of questioning lol so I can't give you a straight out answer right now.
K
No, you are here because God has directed you here. He wants to save you and has sent you here. Even though you are defiant and kick against the goad. God loves you so much that He has directed you here in hopes that you might accept Him and have no excuse on the day of Judgement. God is righteous and no man will be able to point the finger and say I didn't know. well now you know and it's up to you what you do with this knowledge. I can only hope that you make the right choice.
Ah, that would be me. I started out a Christian and after much soul searching became an atheist (though I don't believe in the existence of the soul, so that is really just a figure of speech). 
Actually, I think it might be more proper to say that the belief in God just left me.
You are like my kids, ages 26 and 31. Neither of them ever believed in God. The one doesn't concern himself with these matters, but the other has my interest in Christian history. Neither comprehends how I could ever have believed in God.
If you asked my kids if they would ever want to believe in God the answer would be "No."
Actually, I think it might be more proper to say that the belief in God just left me.
You are like my kids, ages 26 and 31. Neither of them ever believed in God. The one doesn't concern himself with these matters, but the other has my interest in Christian history. Neither comprehends how I could ever have believed in God.
If you asked my kids if they would ever want to believe in God the answer would be "No."
Ah, that would be me. I started out a Christian and after much soul searching became an atheist (though I don't believe in the existence of the soul, so that is really just a figure of speech).
Actually, I think it might be more proper to say that the belief in God just left me.
You are like my kids, ages 26 and 31. Neither of them ever believed in God. The one doesn't concern himself with these matters, but the other has my interest in Christian history. Neither comprehends how I could ever have believed in God.
If you asked my kids if they would ever want to believe in God the answer would be "No."
Actually, I think it might be more proper to say that the belief in God just left me.
You are like my kids, ages 26 and 31. Neither of them ever believed in God. The one doesn't concern himself with these matters, but the other has my interest in Christian history. Neither comprehends how I could ever have believed in God.
If you asked my kids if they would ever want to believe in God the answer would be "No."
K
Ah, that would be me. I started out a Christian and after much soul searching became an atheist (though I don't believe in the existence of the soul, so that is really just a figure of speech).
Actually, I think it might be more proper to say that the belief in God just left me.
You are like my kids, ages 26 and 31. Neither of them ever believed in God. The one doesn't concern himself with these matters, but the other has my interest in Christian history. Neither comprehends how I could ever have believed in God.
If you asked my kids if they would ever want to believe in God the answer would be "No."
Actually, I think it might be more proper to say that the belief in God just left me.
You are like my kids, ages 26 and 31. Neither of them ever believed in God. The one doesn't concern himself with these matters, but the other has my interest in Christian history. Neither comprehends how I could ever have believed in God.
If you asked my kids if they would ever want to believe in God the answer would be "No."
That is tragic, what is it in the Christian belief that is so wrong? What's wrong with being a Christian, they are the best neighbors you can have. Just being a Christian effects the whole neighborhood or would you rather have a meth house drug dealing neighbor? Anyway you are what you are by your choice and I perceive that you had parents that went to church and loved God. Yet you have rejected Him. That is your choice and I cannot make you nor can God make you beleive, it is your choice Heaven or hell that's your choice.
I have talked with people on their death bed and they chose hell.
I realized this a long time ago. There is no physical evidence of God, which is why there are an estimated 33,000 Christian denominations and sects (figure from The Christian Encyclopedia).
I also made this connection, which is why at age sixteen I sought God through faith. I turned to the Bible and prayer. In the end God never revealed himself and I came to the conclusion that I must have been wrong to believe.
No, no, no. This is wrong.
"They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden... and hid themselves.... He (Adam) said, 'I heard the sound of you in the garden, and was afraid....' "
Both, Adam and Eve, clearly were familiar with God. God was not invisible to them. They had knowledge of him based upon direct contact and communication. God could do the same thing now if he wished, if he existed. It is wrong to state that in the story of Adam and Eve those two literary characters had to rely solely on their faith. Think about it. Without a Bible or any cultural heritage how would they even be aware of God unless he communicated directly with them? No, those two had direct knowledge. Even the snake knew, during his one recorded chat with Eve that God had been talking with herself and her husband. Perhaps he had listened from the bushes?
I agree, but Adam and Even did not require faith. They had direct knowledge of Him.
Spoken by a man who rejects the things he can see in favour of that which is invisible.
The righteous live by faith because they have no other choice. In the absence of evidence what else are they to do?
I also made this connection, which is why at age sixteen I sought God through faith. I turned to the Bible and prayer. In the end God never revealed himself and I came to the conclusion that I must have been wrong to believe.
No, no, no. This is wrong.
"They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden... and hid themselves.... He (Adam) said, 'I heard the sound of you in the garden, and was afraid....' "
Both, Adam and Eve, clearly were familiar with God. God was not invisible to them. They had knowledge of him based upon direct contact and communication. God could do the same thing now if he wished, if he existed. It is wrong to state that in the story of Adam and Eve those two literary characters had to rely solely on their faith. Think about it. Without a Bible or any cultural heritage how would they even be aware of God unless he communicated directly with them? No, those two had direct knowledge. Even the snake knew, during his one recorded chat with Eve that God had been talking with herself and her husband. Perhaps he had listened from the bushes?
I agree, but Adam and Even did not require faith. They had direct knowledge of Him.
Spoken by a man who rejects the things he can see in favour of that which is invisible.
The righteous live by faith because they have no other choice. In the absence of evidence what else are they to do?
This would be true if someone just chose to reject the teaching of a deity they still believed in the reality of, but not if they lost belief in that god. If you don’t believe in God and don’t believe in the existence of Hell, then you are not choosing to go to Hell when you die.
I was taught as a child to believe in God. I didn't know anyone who didn't believe and when I became an atheist I thought I was the only one in the world. I kid you not. Then in grade 5, during a classroom discussion, a fellow student announced that he did not believe in God. I remember being stunned by the admission, not because he didn't believe, but because he said it out loud. You see, I didn't believe either, and this memory is the first one that allows me to attach a date to my own atheism. I also remember making a diorama as a school project in grade 4 and filling it with dinosaurs. Attached to this memory is another one. I wondered why there were no dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible. So I suspect that I still believed in God at that time. So sometime between grade four and grade five I seem to have lost belief in God, though I have no memory of that happening.
Nor do I recall coming to believe in God in the first place. Young children simply believe whatever they are told, regardless, whether if be belief in the Tooth Faerie or something else.
Oh, if I had reason to believe in God, then I would believe in God. If it takes my demise to recognize that God is real, then of course I would believe in God at that point. I don’t reject physical evidence, and I suppose that would constitute physical evidence. In the meantime I just don’t believe in things that lack plausibility.
I was taught as a child to believe in God. I didn't know anyone who didn't believe and when I became an atheist I thought I was the only one in the world. I kid you not. Then in grade 5, during a classroom discussion, a fellow student announced that he did not believe in God. I remember being stunned by the admission, not because he didn't believe, but because he said it out loud. You see, I didn't believe either, and this memory is the first one that allows me to attach a date to my own atheism. I also remember making a diorama as a school project in grade 4 and filling it with dinosaurs. Attached to this memory is another one. I wondered why there were no dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible. So I suspect that I still believed in God at that time. So sometime between grade four and grade five I seem to have lost belief in God, though I have no memory of that happening.
Nor do I recall coming to believe in God in the first place. Young children simply believe whatever they are told, regardless, whether if be belief in the Tooth Faerie or something else.
Oh, if I had reason to believe in God, then I would believe in God. If it takes my demise to recognize that God is real, then of course I would believe in God at that point. I don’t reject physical evidence, and I suppose that would constitute physical evidence. In the meantime I just don’t believe in things that lack plausibility.