you used to be an atheist!???

[Grega]

See, I don't know how much mileage this thread will have in here but I've always been curious as to what people mean when they say I used to be an atheist but now I'm a Bible literalist Christian both on forums and more importantly in person

Do you mean to say that you had little opinion either way of the existence of god but tended towards the position that such a thing didn't exist, never really thought about it critically/analytically, and then discovered your flavour of Christianity and decided it was true...
Or were you the sort of atheist who scoffed at the notions of talking serpents, all seeing all doing gods, all the creatures on the Earth (including dinosaurs) on a tiny little ark, etc... and somehow came to the conclusion in spite of some ludicrous sounding stories that seemingly defied logic that these things were somehow not only possible..but actually true based on a book you've always been suspicious of?

I suppose in a sense I'm asking what sort of atheist were you?

 

[Jessica Lauren]

I didn't believe in God. I didn't believe Jesus was anymore than a nice person. I thought the Bible was ludicrous, written by men for various idiotic reasons. I believed evolution was the only plausible answer and that any who believed otherwise lacked intelligence. I rejected Jesus out loud to many people. I had discussions with people about how none of this makes any logical sense, and we'd laugh.

 

[Grega]

I didn't believe in God. I didn't believe Jesus was anymore than a nice person. I thought the Bible was ludicrous, written by men for various idiotic reasons. I believed evolution was the only plausible answer and that any who believed otherwise lacked intelligence. I rejected Jesus out loud to many people. I had discussions with people about how none of this makes any logical sense, and we'd laugh.

Interesting ...how did you come to the conclusion that something which made no logical sense was actually true?...If I assume you are now a Bible literalist...what led you to reject the notions that the stories within are illogical, and a comprimise that some of what is stated in the Bible might be best taken as allegory?

I will not put forward any challenge to your viewpoints in this thead btw...I'm merely curious

 

[BereanTodd]

I thought religious people in general and Christian in particular were complete hypocrites. I thought the Bible was a bunch of junk. I have always been an intellectual and so I was quite read and exposed to atheistic literature.

I believed in evolution, old earth, all of the basics of materialistic naturalism. I was well beyond someone just with "no opinion" on the matter of whether or not there was a God.

I did not jump from that directly to "fundamentalist Christianity". I migrated more towards an agnosticism, then began seeking some sort of spirituality eventually. I played around with several different religions, especially new age type stuff.

Eventually through a number of factors and circumstances converging I became convinced of the basic claims of Christ and gave my heart and my life to Him. At that time I still would be what most Christians would consider 'liberal' biblically/theologically and I held to a view of theistic evollution.

Through years of study and prayer and growth, I have been convinced both scientifically and theologically in a young earth model. That being said I also don't think that fundamentalistic biblical faith requires a young earth model. Whether one holds to the day-age theory, the gap theory, or other possibilities, it is well and truly possible for the Bible to be literally and completely true, and the earth to be billions of years old.

 

[GoodNewsJim]

I wanted to sin so badly that I told myself,"God does not exist" Once I had God out of the picture, I could do anything I wanted.

I think many atheists are this way. They don't like the restrictions that Christianity places on you, so instead of giving God a chance, they just reject them to do whatever they wanted.

The truth is that Jesus sets us free, and rejecting Jesus just makes us a slave to sin.

 

[Grega]

I wanted to sin so badly that I told myself,"God does not exist" Once I had God out of the picture, I could do anything I wanted.

I think many atheists are this way. They don't like the restrictions that Christianity places on you, so instead of giving God a chance, they just reject them to do whatever they wanted.

The truth is that Jesus sets us free, and rejecting Jesus just makes us a slave to sin.

I wanted to sin so badly that I told myself,"God does not exist" Once I had God out of the picture, I could do anything I wanted.

I think many atheists are this way. They don't like the restrictions that Christianity places on you, so instead of giving God a chance, they just reject them to do whatever they wanted.
This is not true...Anyone who is an atheist should not recognise the notion of sin to be a meaningful concept given that they have no belief in the god for whom such a concept is based upon.

 

[PaladinofByzantium]

I was the second sort. The closest thing i had to a religion were the Greek philosophers and Marx. I was a rationalist and an empiricist in many ways and out and out denied the probability of talking serpent events.

I actually take the Alexandrian approach to scripture now of a primarily allegorical sense of hermeneutics within a framework of literal stories

 

[Grega]

I thought religious people in general and Christian in particular were complete hypocrites. I thought the Bible was a bunch of junk. I have always been an intellectual and so I was quite read and exposed to atheistic literature.

I believed in evolution, old earth, all of the basics of materialistic naturalism. I was well beyond someone just with "no opinion" on the matter of whether or not there was a God.

I did not jump from that directly to "fundamentalist Christianity". I migrated more towards an agnosticism, then began seeking some sort of spirituality eventually. I played around with several different religions, especially new age type stuff.

Eventually through a number of factors and circumstances converging I became convinced of the basic claims of Christ and gave my heart and my life to Him. At that time I still would be what most Christians would consider 'liberal' biblically/theologically and I held to a view of theistic evollution.

Through years of study and prayer and growth, I have been convinced both scientifically and theologically in a young earth model. That being said I also don't think that fundamentalistic biblical faith requires a young earth model. Whether one holds to the day-age theory, the gap theory, or other possibilities, it is well and truly possible for the Bible to be literally and completely true, and the earth to be billions of years old.

Thankyou for this answer

 

[Grega]

I was the second sort. The closest thing i had to a religion were the Greek philosophers and Marx. I was a rationalist and an empiricist in many ways and out and out denied the probability of talking serpent events.

I actually take the Alexandrian approach to scripture now of a primarily allegorical sense of hermeneutics within a framework of literal stories

Thankyou for your response, though would you explain to me what you mean by the last part?...do you mean to say that the literal Bible stories you interpret to be allegorical or do you mean something else?

 

[PaladinofByzantium]

I mean that I interpret some events literally (i.e. the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Maccabean Revolution) whilst others, like the Ark and Garden of Eden, I interpret allegorically. These allegorical stories are put in a frame of historically true stories.

 

[GoodNewsJim]

how did you come to the conclusion that something which made no logical sense was actually true?...

What?

 

[Grega]

What?

In that post you quoted me on here, there is a quote from the previous poster which contains the statement: "I had discussions with people about how none of this makes any logical sense, and we'd laugh"
The entire quote was written in past tense which implied that the very thing this person found to be ludicrous they now believe to be true...my response to that persons post is not so absurd as your response here implies

 

[Jessica Lauren]

Interesting ...how did you come to the conclusion that something which made no logical sense was actually true?...If I assume you are now a Bible literalist...what led you to reject the notions that the stories within are illogical, and a comprimise that some of what is stated in the Bible might be best taken as allegory?

I will not put forward any challenge to your viewpoints in this thead btw...I'm merely curious

It made no logical sense because I wasn't understanding it as well as I thought. A lot of people are ignorant about Christianity. Once I researched it more, I realized the Bible could be true. Then many, many things happened in my life(things that just wouldn't happen out of chance) that brought me closer to God. Then I started reading the Bible more, researching, and it all made sense to me. I don't really think the majority of the stories are allegory.

 

[Grega]

It made no logical sense because I wasn't understanding it as well as I thought. A lot of people are ignorant about Christianity. Once I researched it more, I realized the Bible could be true. Then many, many things happened in my life(things that just wouldn't happen out of chance) that brought me closer to God. Then I started reading the Bible more, researching, and it all made sense to me. I don't really think the majority of the stories are allegory.

As promised I won't challenge you further on this...thanks for your input