I guess it depends on how you define atheist . I ' d say not believing in God makes one an atheist . Right , but I think that lacking the experience is sufficient to not believe in God . Plenty of exChristian atheists have experienced while they were Christians what they though was God . Plenty of current Christians experience what they think is God . The experiences feel the same . There ' s no way to tell them apart . Both sets of people feel in their heart of hearts something that they attribute to God . While I generally agree with you on the line of questions regarding what kind of God would only reveal himself to a certain proportion of people in a church , I have nevertheless seen or heard the you never REALLY experienced argument several times and in several different ways . There are entire scriptures about this especially parable of the sower . Maybe those people aren ' t interpreting things properly , but doesn ' t that in itself suggest that people can be incorrect about their own understandings ?