Seems this thread has devolved and is no longer about agnostics and atheists. OK.

Here is my view. Faith is a gift from God. If you are a non-believer, this will be seen as nonsense by you. However, it is not.

Further, once that faith has been given, faith becomes the substance , (one might see "substance" as the inner witness of truth.) of things hoped for and for enlightenment of the truth. Read Holy Spirit for the Christians out there.

So, without faith, it can be said that one cannot understand the things of God.

But, don't give up. God will freely give to those who seek.

Want to be sure of not finding? Then don't seek. You will not find.


I offer an analogy. Let's suppose I have traveled to some faraway place and have eaten some exotic dish not found in your home country. I can try to explain how it tastes. I have tasted it but you have not. So, when someone denies that the exotic dish tastes the way I describe, I see them as not accepting my testimony and wonder why they reject it. Further when they tell me that I did not eat of it and I am lying about the exotic dish, I see them as lost in their ignorance and lost in their own world.

TF

The tax collector said: “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Jesus said he went home “justified.”