I believe that human beings are born with a deep longing for God and that we never outgrow it (even though we sometimes redirect it).  Wherever you find people you find religion and ritual — some form of attempting to connect with (or appease) God or gods (even if they don’t call it that).

This almost universal yearning for inner meaning and purpose has been called “a God-shaped vacuum in the human heart.” Even when people try to ignore it, deny it, or refute it; an inner dissatisfaction of life without God, still drives them and eats at them.

I know that I was born that way. My parents told me that when I first learned to talk I would tell them about God, even though at that time in their lives, they didn’t go to church or talk about God. I wanted to know God from the time I first remember until I was born again at age 19.

So if (at least some) people are born with a craving for God, isn’t contemporary culture contradicting itself when it tries to curtail and cutoff religion? Our present day society teaches that if a person has a deep desire, then she/he has been “born that way” — therefore they should be free to openly express that desire and everybody else must approve of their desire or be labeled intolerant and/or hateful.

Why don’t we use the same “logic” or “reasoning” when it comes to religion? Why doesn’t modern society call people who disagree with religion and/or don’t approve of faith in God, “intolerant”?

Here are some quotes that testify that people have a natural born yearning for God:

“He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart.” –Ecclesiastes 3:11

“You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” –Augustine

“There is a hole in our hearts that only God can fill.  We were made to be connected to our Creator.  We were made to know Him and to be plugged into His power. Your heart is designed to contain God.” –Rick Warren

“We’re all searching for something to fill up what I like to call that big, God-shaped hole in our souls. Some people use alcohol, or sex, or their children, or food, or money, or music, or heroin.” –Tiffanie DeBartolo in the book God-Shaped Hole

“Love Christ, and then the eternity in the heart will not be a great aching void, but will be filled with the everlasting life which Christ gives and is.”  –Alexander MacLaren