Question for ex-atheists

[Ken Rank]

Greetings. I have a question that I would like ex-atheists who are now believers to answer.

The question is simple... what changed for you? I have a friend who claims to be an atheist but who is now starting not have the ability to reconcile the idea that our sentience and love for others will all just disappear when his personal evolutionary journey has come to an end. IOW, that all he knows, his self awareness, his love for others, their love for him, all he on a community and planetary scale, his desires to help others.... everything... will just goes away and was all for nothing. Have you faced that question(s)? How did you deal with it? What caused you to turn from that bleak scenario to one where God was in control of all?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Yarddog]

Greetings. I have a question that I would like ex-atheists who are now believers to answer.

The question is simple... what changed for you? I have a friend who claims to be an atheist but who is now starting not have the ability to reconcile the idea that our sentience and love for others will all just disappear when his personal evolutionary journey has come to an end. IOW, that all he knows, his self awareness, his love for others, their love for him, all he on a community and planetary scale, his desires to help others.... everything... will just goes away and was all for nothing. Have you faced that question(s)? How did you deal with it? What caused you to turn from that bleak scenario to one where God was in control of all?

Thanks in advance.

The only thing that I can say is God's Holy Spirit. I'm not sure how long I claimed atheism because it was so long ago, in my early teens. I was raised Baptist but turned away because of a fire and brimstone style preacher. I then turned further because of an incident with my Grandmother, a Pentecostal, whose actions towards a black man angered me to the point the point that I called God to strike me dead if he condoned that.

I don't know what happened but at some point in my later teens I started to search for God. My brother told me that he saw me sitting up in bed one night and speaking in a language which he had never heard before. (I don't know if that is true because I had no recollection of the event)

All I can say is that I started reading scripture and would sit back and suddenly understand how what I had read applied to my life. It was very awakening.

 

[Halbhh]

Getting what several churches didn't give:
The full words of Jesus, entire passages, instead of a few verses taken away from all He actually says.

 

[MMDave3]

There was a point in my 20's when I could have described myself as an atheist, or at the very least, agnostic. What changed? I discovered that at the bottom of the atheist rabbit hole is nothing. Literally, nihilism and misery. You can see it in a lot of atheists - there's a sneering contempt for faith. There is an attitude that embracing any belief in God, any hope in something bigger means a person is delusional or crazy. A lot of atheists will lash out at people who have faith because they have nothing and it's making them angry, and they don't realize why they are angry. I had begun to see some of this emerge in myself, and I had to pause and ask myself how and why it came to this. I realized I was happier with God in my life. I reflected on when I was a child. I realized there has to be more to life than the darkness peddled by atheists. I had read books by prominent atheist authors - Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, for example. I realize that without hurling insults and condescension, these guys didn't really have anything to offer me. So I guess you could say I got tired of living with hopelessness and misery.

That said, I'm reminded of 2 Thessalonians 1:9&10

"These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be marveled at on that day among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed."

Separating yourself from God is punishment and destruction right here on earth. Most atheists either don't see it or are too arrogant to admit it.

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

The best I can say, is perhaps 'softening' and being sceptical. I had been quite a vehement atheist and strong supporter of empiricism, but came to realise how faulty a lot of my reasoning was. It was only when I realised that what was rational or reasonable need not be what I had thought it was. It was a complex transformation, as I don't even recognise my former self, and have trouble reconstructing his thought. My Atheist former self has largely become a cautionary caricature of hubris and self-conceit.

I wrote a testimony on it, when I first joined this site:

Saved from Atheism

 

[Ken Rank]

The best I can say, is perhaps 'softening' and being sceptical. I had been quite a vehement atheist and strong supporter of empiricism, but came to realise how faulty a lot of my reasoning was. It was only when I realised that what was rational or reasonable need not be what I had thought it was. It was a complex transformation, as I don't even recognise my former self, and have trouble reconstructing his thought. My Atheist former self has largely become a cautionary caricature of hubris and self-conceit.

I wrote a testimony on it, when I first joined this site:

Saved from Atheism

Thanks, I just read your testimony, thanks for sharing it. I didn't realize Lewis had been an atheist. In any event, I might try to get this guy to come here. I just want to be careful.

 

[Joy]

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[AnglicanPeace]

I have read most of the prominent atheist books and explored lots of atheistic philosophies, including Zen Buddhism, Modern Stoicism, Ancient Hedonism, Ancient Epicureanism, Antinatalism, Philosophical Pessimism, and even LaVeyan Satanism. I found every single one of these lacking (except pessimism, which I incorporate into my journey to becoming a Catholic. Interestingly, Schopenhauer said that it's either Christianity or suicidal ideation). I think deep down, I just wanted to prove a point: that I could be happy and fulfilled without submitting to and obeying the will of God. I think it was just an ego thing masquerading as an innocent search for the Good Life. It's very humbling to know that I need God. I'm just grateful to God that after all this rebelling and trying to be "different," I didn't lose all my faith. In fact, I have a deeper appreciation of how precious and important a relationship with God is than I did as a content, pretty certain, almost smug Christian college student.

Yes, I have a lot of problems with atheism imposing itself on believers, especially Christians (seemingly rarely Muslims, maybe because Islam is seen as a minority religion and maybe the West is becoming anti-white). For one thing, I find it disingenuous to not believe in God just to have fun and think science will solve your problems but to deep down not care about "the truth" i.e. the issue of free will, the issue of if any of us would "push the red button," to believe in equality, justice, morality, freedom, happiness, and love. Well, those are beliefs too. So why can't I have beliefs?

Another thing is this incessant search for certainty, to have *all* the answers. Well, none of us do. Saying, "I don't know" is underrated.

Finally, there are no real atheists, according a reputable article. It reported how everyone is born believing.

I think the truth is overrated anyway. Say the truth hurts and you live a depressed/suicidal life. Then you die and forget the truth. To what end? Antinatalism might say "so you won't reproduce." Well, there have always been problems and there have always been happy, fulfilled, productive people who, instead of feeling sorry for themselves (or turning to drugs?), have worked to make the world a better place.

 

[MariaJLM]

Honestly, it's a long story how I went from atheism to Christianity. One big factor was Apophatic Theology, though. It definitely helped to understand what God isn't rather than trying to figure out everything He is.