Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 2
Chewachu described growing up in atheism yet noticing Chinese New Year practices (kitchen gods, incense, burning paper) as “believing something but not knowing”; what does this imply about God’s witness in human conscience and culture even when people claim “we believe in nothing”?
Another way to ask: Chewachu grew up atheist but still saw people doing Chinese New Year rituals. What does that show about how God can leave signs of himself in people’s hearts and culture, even when they say they believe in nothing?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Based on the speaker’s teaching, even in an “atheist” environment, people still act like they believe in something spiritual, which hints that the desire to worship is still present even when it is unnamed or confused. His point implies there is a kind of built-in human awareness or conscience that reaches for the spiritual, even when people claim, “I believe nothing.”
- He says his parents were “atheists” and “no one around me was Christian or believing anything.”
- Then he corrects himself: “thinking back…some of them are still believing something, but they don't know they're believing something.”
- Examples: during Chinese New Year “lots of people will worship…God in kitchen or all kinds of God.”
- At death, people “burn paper and incense and want to worship something.”
- He concludes: “some of them still have a God in their mind…but they don’t know.”
- Later, when asked about unbelievers, he adds: “God gave a heart conscience in everyone’s heart…They want to seek some deeper relationship with God, with people.”