Ex-atheists, why did you convert?

[angellica]

Ex-atheists, why did you convert?

 

[Jade Margery]

I'm not a christian, but I used to be an atheist and now I'm an agnostic. I went from being certain to uncertain due to a artificial life simulation computer game in which I was effectively the god of a little universe of my own creation. The creatures in the game had no idea I existed, no concept with which to accurately describe me, no way to understand my morals or plans, and I often ended up killing them through neglect or boredom. The possibility that an equally alien greater intelligence than mine could exist did not escape me, although that makes me no more likely to believe in the christian view, in fact it makes me less so. Their very certainty that they've got it right seems the height of folly to me, because we honestly can't know.

For any gamers out there, no, it wasn't 'Spore'.

I doubt this is the answer you're looking for, but I did convert from atheist to something else so I thought I'd toss in my two cents.

 

[Beanieboy]

I'm intrigued. So, what did you become?

I recently was talking to a friend of mine, and she mentioned that she was atheist. She said that she believed that we are all part of one great spirit, believed in God in that we are our own god, but definitely didn't believe in a "person" God, who sits on a throne, and has a white robe.

And, what is strange for me, is that I find myself saying to such people, "I think what you think of, when you talk about being atheist, and me, believing through my whole being that there is a God, are strangely the same concept, described differently.

 

[Polycarp_fan]

Ex-atheists, why did you convert?

Math.

And human nature.

 

[angellica]

Math.

And human nature.

Was there anything a Christian said, or could have said, to convert you? Or was it more of an introspective thing?

 

[angellica]

I'm not a christian, but I used to be an atheist and now I'm an agnostic. I went from being certain to uncertain due to a artificial life simulation computer game in which I was effectively the god of a little universe of my own creation. The creatures in the game had no idea I existed, no concept with which to accurately describe me, no way to understand my morals or plans, and I often ended up killing them through neglect or boredom. The possibility that an equally alien greater intelligence than mine could exist did not escape me, although that makes me no more likely to believe in the christian view, in fact it makes me less so. Their very certainty that they've got it right seems the height of folly to me, because we honestly can't know.

For any gamers out there, no, it wasn't 'Spore'.

I doubt this is the answer you're looking for, but I did convert from atheist to something else so I thought I'd toss in my two cents.

While I know God is out there, I am quick to admit that I can't begin to know everything about Him, or to completely understand or comprehend His power.

 

[Polycarp_fan]

Was there anything a Christian said, or could have said, to convert you? Or was it more of an introspective thing?

Of course. Jonathan Locke, C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, and even Walter Martin stuff. It was twenty years ago, so there wasn't a lot of Hugh Ross style stuff around. It's more fun now.

And of course I read The Passover Plot and the typical anti-Christian stuff. Rehashed over and over again with different colored paint. The latest version is called The Da Vinci Code. They just keep going and going like the Energizer Bunny. It's amusing to me.

What fascinated me about Christian scholarship and what is called apologetics was the lucid, calm and intellectually stimulating way in which Christian's like Lewis go about their ideology and theology. Although there are many oh-so typical infidelee-skeptic types here that pigeon hole me into the fundy section, their arguments boil down to nothing more than what I carped myself so many times when I stood firm on the no God deal. Many great theologians are somewhat more tolerant of things. When one reads Locke or Lewis, you see an expanded view of many things. Liberals though, take things too far and even out of Church reach on too many things these days. Except for this new gay activist religious thing, it's all pretty bland stuff in the anti-Christian clubs. Oh wow: "Who made God? Why is there evil if God is good? Evolution! Christians are intellectual idiots." Blah, blah, blah. That bogey man is no longer scary. Our scholars are stepping up as they always have. Most atheist perspectives are more emotion-driven than the Christian positions. Maybe there is worth there though, but it's not in proving origin or value of human beings.

The Biblical perspective looks more plausible than slime, over billions of years becoming a beautiful woman does. That Evangelical Christians are discounted by certain kinds of atheists as less than enlightened, or as mental amoebas, is laughable more times than it's not. I know when I prayed with skilled surgeons that are straight-up Christians, I couldn't help but notice the irony that these guys made it through so many years of western education at the highest levels and have extremely strong beliefs for Christ.

But anyway . . . I don't want to start nongodian bashing, so suffice it to say, I became a Christian by viewing the reality of what's going on all around me and inside me. Like Lee Strobel kind of.

I like the way this guy presents his Christian enlightenment story:

FROM SKEPTICISM TO WORSHIP
by
A.S.A. Jones

09/01/02

MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY

I was a devout atheist for over twenty years. In July of 1998, I finally managed to see the biblical truths that had managed to elude me. The following is an account of how I went from hardcore skepticism to hardcore worship of the Savior, Jesus Christ.

There is one brand of atheist that I do value still, that being the one that rejects God because of violence. The man's injustice to man thing has seen its day come and go, because atheism has been the foundation of unimagineable horror. And still, oddly enough, they never see the weapons of mass destruction being created and fine-tuned coming from those centers of education that they value so much in their camp over and over again.

And of course the nature of human beings is too supernatural for me to see atheism derived from an unreasoning cosmos as having any merit any longer.

And then there's Jesus and His Disciples from then til now. The writings are amazing in and of themselves . . . peace that surpasses all.

.



Amen means That's right.

OK so it means, let it be so.

 

[Polycarp_fan]

While I know God is out there, I am quick to admit that I can't begin to know everything about Him, or to completely understand or comprehend His power.

That sounds very Christian and intellectual to me.

 

[Isambard]

For any gamers out there, no, it wasn't 'Spore'.

I doubt this is the answer you're looking for, but I did convert from atheist to something else so I thought I'd toss in my two cents.

Not to go offtopic, but atheism and agnosticism are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Both can be fuzzy terms and can mean each other by definition depending on the context talked about. The only exceptions I think of is "strong atheists", who are the only group that stoutly ignore all possibility for any sort of deity. Rest of us just feel like the implications are irrelevant.

 

[Beanieboy]

But I have found atheists that think about theology and spirituality a lot, and someone who is a fill-in-the-blank worshipper that rarely thinks about their religion, spiritual life, and basically sleepwalks through their spiritual life, often, misquoting and misunderstanding the very text than claim to believe in.

 

[Jade Margery]

While I know God is out there, I am quick to admit that I can't begin to know everything about Him, or to completely understand or comprehend His power.

....how do you KNOW he is out there then? Knowing implies certainty, proof, evidence. There is a world of difference between believing something exists and knowing something exists. Seems like a lot of people use them interchangeably.

I know that I exist. (I think, therefore, I am) Beyond that, I gotta admit all possibilities have equal worth.

 

[Garyzenuf]

The few times I thought about it (God) growing up, it never seemed plausible or necassary to me. When I was younger it seemed all things were possible thru intelligence (such as I possessed) and my own energies. In my late 20's I was finally laid low by my alcoholism, it seems my own power was not enough to overcome my diesease not matter how hard I tried.

Part of a 12-step recovery program (which I joined), is dependance on a power greater than ourselves, I called my HP God as many in the fellowship do. After several years praying and meditating, working the steps, and not drinking , I felt a growing need for a more personal contact with God. Many of my friends were and are christians, so I started to attend church and fellowship with Christians on a spiritual level, this led me to accept Christ and become a Christian (I think?).

After 15 years for what ever reason I started to, and ended up de-converting (although ALL my Christian friends say this is impossible, they say I'm a seeking/searching christian) due at first to what I consider to be discrepencies in the bible, then added a few more concerns as time went on.

If I had known there was Christians kicking around who didn't take the bible to be 100% accurate, and who did not take to heart some of the what I find the more intolerant veiws of some dogma(?) I could still quite possibly be a Christian.

Anyways thats more of a de-converting story than a converting story, sorry, just my 1.6 cents (canadian) worth.

*

 

[angellica]

....how do you KNOW he is out there then? Knowing implies certainty, proof, evidence. There is a world of difference between believing something exists and knowing something exists. Seems like a lot of people use them interchangeably.

I know that I exist. (I think, therefore, I am) Beyond that, I gotta admit all possibilities have equal worth.

That's where faith comes in .

 

[angellica]

The few times I thought about it (God) growing up, it never seemed plausible or necassary to me. When I was younger it seemed all things were possible thru intelligence (such as I possessed) and my own energies. In my late 20's I was finally laid low by my alcoholism, it seems my own power was not enough to overcome my diesease not matter how hard I tried.

Part of a 12-step recovery program (which I joined), is dependance on a power greater than ourselves, I called my HP God as many in the fellowship do. After several years praying and meditating, working the steps, and not drinking , I felt a growing need for a more personal contact with God. Many of my friends were and are christians, so I started to attend church and fellowship with Christians on a spiritual level, this led me to accept Christ and become a Christian (I think?).

After 15 years for what ever reason I started to, and ended up de-converting (although ALL my Christian friends say this is impossible, they say I'm a seeking/searching christian) due at first to what I consider to be discrepencies in the bible, then added a few more concerns as time went on.

If I had known there was Christians kicking around who didn't take the bible to be 100% accurate, and who did not take to heart some of the what I find the more intolerant veiws of some dogma(?) I could still quite possibly be a Christian.

Do you still believe in God and just got fed up with religion/religious people?

Anyways thats more of a de-converting story than a converting story, sorry, just my 1.6 cents (canadian) worth.

 

[Beanieboy]

....how do you KNOW he is out there then? Knowing implies certainty, proof, evidence. There is a world of difference between believing something exists and knowing something exists. Seems like a lot of people use them interchangeably.

I know that I exist. (I think, therefore, I am) Beyond that, I gotta admit all possibilities have equal worth.

How does one "know" they have a soul? Scientists have looked for "the observer" in the eyes, the brain, the heart, and there is no one there. The soul can not be seen, nor proven.

Yet, we all "know" that we have one.

We can't prove that love is real, that it is no more than a chemical reaction and hormones, and yet, we "know" that love is very real.

In What the Bleep do We Know, one of the researchers says that he believes with ever fiber in his body that there is a "God", and yet, cannot describe what "God" means because he also "knows" that the very concept is outside of his understanding.

That's a weird place to be, and yet, many of us are there. We know God is real, but cannot specifically say what God is.

 

[Nooj]

How does one "know" they have a soul? Scientists have looked for "the observer" in the eyes, the brain, the heart, and there is no one there. The soul can not be seen, nor proven.

Yet, we all "know" that we have one.

No, 'we' don't. I don't think we can know if we have a soul or not. I remain an agnostic non-soulist.

We can't prove that love is real, that it is no more than a chemical reaction and hormones, and yet, we "know" that love is very real.

We can 'prove' that love is real. Love is the result of chemical reactions in the brain, and by examining such things as dopamine and seratonin levels in select part of the brains, we can know that love is 'real'.

 

[Beanieboy]

Point taken.

I guess when people say that the "know" something like that, that isn't what they are actually saying, literally. Maybe, one "senses" it, or simply seems to think of it as fact, while not being able to prove it. So, maybe, "assume", or "believe in it" rather than "knowing" it, is more accurate. I can't explain why I think of God as a fact. God has never literally spoken to me like Moses, but I "know" God's voice, which comes in the form of a thought to me. There is something else within me, almost literally like what people say when I say that every fiber of my being believes in God, so even when my mind doubts, my body, my 'cells" seem to believe, and yet, I can't explain that. I can't even articulate well what God is, and yet I believe.

So, it makes perfect sense to me when someone who is atheist or agnostic says there is no God, because so many believers can't even explain what it is that they believe.

 

[Garyzenuf]

Do you still believe in God and just got fed up with religion/religious people?

Atheist I guess when it comes to religion, Agnostic concerning God.

Can't ever remember getting fed up with any Christians I've known in real life. (Get a little ticked at times with some religous people here though. )

*

 

[Freodin]

That's a weird place to be, and yet, many of us are there. We know God is real, but cannot specifically say what God is.

I´d say this is a very basic human problem, and one I think is als the very basis of the problem of religion.

Humans like it simple. They take a concept that has bothered millions of people for thousands of years... call it a simple, one-sylable word, and hey presto! have the answer to everything.

And then they start to wonder why there is so much disagreement over such a simple, one-sylable concept.

 

[Nihilismus]

I do not comprehend all of this "agnosticism" nonsense. One either believes in God(s) or one does not. Acknowledging the possibility of a deity does not make you less of an atheist. There is no need to create an entirely new label to broadcast your uncertainty. So long as you are without a belief in any higher power, you are an atheist by definition. Simple.