Now that I think about it, I think his denial of the truth is more labourous to him than it seems to me.I personally know an atheist who avoids any firm knowedge of God.
I tried my best at preaching to him, but he perfers to cling to narrataives that christianity is a cult, and God is morally evil because he lets people die; always pointing to the '1000's of other gods who may be right'.
He doesn't appear to me to be evil, and I've wondered a lot about the state of the souls of people like him, how he gets to where he his, and what prevents him from coming to the truth.
As much as I know, the chip on his shoulder is from a pastor he encountered in his childhood.
He is one of those experienced ones. He himself has witnessed a prophetic dream of serving in the military which was fulfilled years after it happened, and when I point out all the reasons how everything in his life must've come from one universal source, he still labors to find ways to deny it.I enjoy a lot of discussions with atheists and they also are in different levels, no different than a young Christian for example.
There are some atheists who say "hey what books do i read so i can win some arguments with Christians online". lol
If you encounter this type of atheist, don't debate him. Buy him lunch or an ice cream instead.
Then there are those who are more experienced who ultimately want to defeat God due to a reason, there's always a reason, for which they always want to blame God.
But no one, and i mean no one has a "lack of belief" as the definition of the vocabulary is. And ultimately with an experienced atheist, this becomes a game of words. Always.
Because as i explained to another atheist "lack of belief" means that you're not conscious or you lost your memory in a car accident, and you lack the capacity or you're deficient in knowing what God is. Because once you know something, you can't unknow it ... unless you go into a coma or you lose your memory in a car accident.
An atheist is a belief system into itself which rejects God not in the sense that is not aware of God. They're aware and they reject God.
Because even a human raised in a forest, in a tribe, unaffected by the world knows what God is.
And for these people you have to allow their free-willed journey just like God has allowed it for everyone since The Garden.
When we all face God, we will know where we will be ... because we are naked in front of God and we can't hide anything from Him who will ultimately judge our hearts and intentions.
It's baffeling to me. His denial is like an oroborus, and he can't see it.
