I’ve heard the nonreligious talk about their “spirituality”. It consists mostly of egotism. It is love of one’s own intelligence rather than love of nature, humanity, etc as they may try to claim. This is why you often see new-agers siding with terrorists and expressing their hatred of those who defend the rights of the innocent. Their ego always comes before love of others. Also, you may hear them speak about “holding the universe in your mind” or some such rubbish. I used to be in to that new age stuff. No thanks, done with it.
I’m still not able to believe in God for the reasons stated in the article. In many cases, if you become nonreligious you will never go back to being religious. Likewise, if you were never religious, you will never truly “find God”. There is simply no way for a naturalistic worldview to “convert” to a supernatural one. If you think this happened to you, it didn’t. You were always religious even if you didn’t know it.
To me this sounds more like an attempt to square your observations with a predetermined world view. Of course there is a way for a naturalistic worldview to “convert” to a supernatural one. Its just not one you are willing to accept. So you adopt a new hypothesis. Sort of like when the world started cooling off a bit, so Al Gore's scientists invented "Climate Change" to replace global warming.
Please understand that it makes very little difference to me whether you believe in God or not. But I have run into more than my fair share of atheists who found God in their lives. I can assure you that some of them had not one ounce of exposure to spirituality from birth. Some of them were born behind the Iron Curtain. This is the long way, and the nice way, of saying your theory is easy to disprove. The fact is your own prejudices force you to rule out the possibility that some people come to God because they allowed God into their lives. That's the way it works. Again, I'm not telling you to give up your atheism. I'm just reminding you that you have absolutely nothing to lose if you allow yourself to keep an open mind about these things.
One bit of evidence for the existence of God are the people on this thread who are carrying out in their gentle way the Great Commission (Go ye, therefore, and make disciples ...), as it relates directly to you.
You will never find evidence in the form of a "smoking gun" for the existence of God. The Bible tells us that "By faith you will believe." I have often wondered why that is.
My best answer is that, first, He gave us free will. If we did not have that capacity we would be 'captives' or 'slaves' of God, not 'followers.'
Another reason is that whatever the "evidence" is for God, it must be such that a naked child could carry it into the next generation. (That is, if it were in danger of being lost, it could pass in front of the eyes of those who would try to 'eliminate God' and they would not see it.)
Those who want to become god-like are eternally trying to destroy God. If the 'proof' were a big black rock in the Middle East, or some such nonsense, how easy would it be to destroy that 'proof.' So, "by faith you will believe." That can be carried into the next generation by a naked child. Faith may seem fragile. It is anything but. Faith in the salvific power of Jesus spread from the mouth of an empty tomb in Jerusalem about 2000 years ago and swept over the world. I know you know the history of that.
Lord Jesus, here is one, we know him as 'Soothsayer.' who has sought your face, and your breath in his life. When it is his time and in Your manner, I pray that you come into his life in a way that will give him faith in You and in Your power to save him. In your Holy and Precious Name I ask this. Amen