Being Doubting Thomas

How do you know God is real? I know from my upbringing that believing in God requires blind faith. We should not have to see to believe. Okay, this I can understand. Kind of like I can look at water and know that it's made up of hydrogen and oxygen but I don't have to see the individual molecules to believe it. But how can you believe in something so much without seeing it?

Now, I know the argument about seeing God through other people and various acts. Oftentimes in my life I have attributed something that has happened in my life to God. For instance, recently a friend of mine told me she was sick. The sickness that she has is not really rare, however it is not something that many people talk about. She is incredibly scared and would normally not have anywhere to turn except for, last spring, I was diagnosed with the same condition. I trusted her enough to talk to her about it so she knew that she could talk to me about it. If I had not gone through the situation myself I would not have been able to help her. After she had talked to me about it and I was in my room thinking I said to myself "thank God I went through that so I could help her". But what if it has nothing to do with God? What if we both just ended up with the same unfortunate fate because we both made poor decisions? What if it is just some sick joke the universe is playing on us? How do we truly know the difference.

I guess this is where I get confused about other religions as well. I was raised in a Christian church. Everyone around me when I was growing up were also raised in Christian churches. They are the kinds of churches that are dominant in the U.S. What if the only reason I am a Christian is by default? I was never really exposed to other religions, therefore I just latched onto the only thing I knew. There are people around the world of so many different cultures that believe different things. How do I know that Christians have picked the right one? Wouldn't it be the funniest joke on us if, when we died, we found out that we were wrong all our lives? Okay, not funny but you get what I'm saying.

Now, you hear all the time about people converting to Christianity but what about the people who leave Christianity. Whether that be to be an atheist, agnostic or a different religion is irrelevant. The key point is they left. Why don't we hear about these people? Someday I think I would like to sit down with some of my atheist and agnostic friends and ask them why. On the flip-side, I would also like to sit down with some Christians and ask them why.

Maybe I just feel all this because I've never had any major "divine sign" or something. Either that or I have and just haven't noticed it; this is probably the more likely answer. Is it too much to ask to have a concrete sign? I feel like doubting Thomas. (I still feel like he got a bad wrap) But they say that doubt is not a bad thing. Without doubting and asking questions, there is no room to grow, right? Or am I just spouting back things that I've always been told? Sometimes it is just hard to remember which thoughts were mine and which were put there when I was little.