God - "Our imaginary friend." Steve jobs imagined the iPad before it became real. Walt Disney imagined his cartoons before they became real. You imagined making your lunch before it became real. Archeologists imagined dinosaurs in order to put their bones together to make them real. Everything that we see today took imagination: buildings, cars, even getting out of bed and putting clothes on. However it was not just imagination which helped the people achieve these things - it was imagination with the intent they would succeed - it was imagination with the positive intent that it could actually happen or become real. Prior to the first aircraft being made, people with lesser imagination said its not possible, the creators built it with positive intentions and believed in what they had imagined becoming real. The better your imagination is, the easier you believe/intend that something can be real or become real. However It seems that even people with the best imagination can turn off the "positive intent to believe button" towards specific things, which makes it hard for them to imagine those things being/becoming real. It was only when Tolkien told Lewis that he took the hat of a sceptic and turned off his imagination when looking at the Christian story, that he began to see the truth of God. If you were to lose imagination now you would be able to do nothing more than just fall to the ground physically and mentally rendered like a vegetable. You would not be able to envision what to do, never mind how to get there or how to get back up. If you agree with this then you must also surely agree that if someone turns off the 'intention to believe' button (disabling their imagination) towards a specific theory or idea then their view is as good as that of a vegetable. As we know that nothing can become real anyway, without imagination. We can only imagine things that we have experienced with our senses in this world therefore it would be impossible to imagine something like a new color, smell or texture. Having a view of God with your 'intent to believe button' turned off (disabling your imagination) is like having a view of a color that you have never seen or a flavor you have never tasted. Therefore before we carry on trying to find if God is real, we first need to have an imagination and we need to have our intent to believe buttons turned on (so as not to disable our imagination). I'm not saying that anything can exist, if we imagine it and really intend on it being true. E.g. Flying. No - I'm saying that truth is there whether you choose to believe it or not. "Truth as a category must exist even while one is denying its existence and must also afford the possibility of being known." Ravi Zacharias The Christian story is a truth that affords the possibility of being known. How do we Imagine something out of this world? An artist would classify art as imagination with intent. Historically when businesses lose imagination/creativity they very quickly go down hill. Why do people not have intent to believe in God? Believing in God means admitting he is all knowing and all good. Admitting that he is all knowing and all good is the realization that we should selflessly abide by his will and not ours. But we want to be selfish. Therefore until someone has a selfish reason to believe in God they will not intend on believing in him, as it means they will have to make the humble decision to stop fully believing in themselves. "When I am weak he is strong" Experience over intellect - experiencing suffering, makes us intent on believing in God. Thinking of suffering does not. Pride doesn't like the truth.