Christians say lots of atheists convert to theism. Does that describe anyone here?

Question

My experience is it almost ALWAYS goes the other way, but hey, i could be wrong.

Please say a bit about what convinced you there is a God.

Christians: Remember, to lie is against your faith. You are forewarned.

Answer 1

Hi,

While I was never a full-fledged atheist (I subscribed to Asimov's explanation of why he chose agnosticism to describe his religious affinity or lack thereof) I was a sober agnostic.

Now I'm an ordained minister and an Associate Pastor who teaches college level apologetics, comparitive religion, and other Bible-based courses.

My professional background is one of science (I hold degrees in orthomolecular nutrition and biomolecular mechanics) and I worked for a multi-national pharmaceutical laboratory for over 11 years before becoming the Director of Technical Research and the Head of Product Research and Development for two different companies at two different times.

What ultimately convinced me that there was a God went beyond an intellectual revelation to a personal revelation. Since my conversion (my acceptance of Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior) I've seen miracles occur. When I say 'miracles' I'm not speaking metaphorically (i.e., if 'I won the lottery' I wouldn't call that a miracle) but literally. For instance, within the past 8 months I've seen a man completely healed of Parkinson's disease -- a man I personally know who had undergone 44 surgeries to correct muscular abnormalities during the past 20+ years (12 of those surgeries months before and within a couple of weeks prior to his healing). This is a man in my congregation and whose medical records I've been able to look at. Just in case anyone is wondering, spontaneous remission of advance Parkinson's does NOT occur.

By the way, we aren't talking about simply dystonia but Stage 5 UPDRS -- wheel chair bound with and without medication.

Hope this helps answer your question.

Lonnie Honeycutt

Answer 2

I grew up in the 60's it was easy to be an athiest then. Many were rebelling, our leaders were obviously doing wrong things and church was just one more establishment participator who was identified as part of the problem. The church as a group can still be easily pointed out as being part of the problem. I had a crisis in my life and began to think I had an error in my thinking and started to re-evaluate. Two ladies came to me at that time and even though I was leaving that area the next day they said they would make me a tape of a speaker they thought had a message that would help me. The tape was 7 cassets long and and the ladies who copied them worked all night long (they were true christians). I could tell by the background noise. I listened to these tapes by Malcolm Smith. He presented the first soundly grounded in scripture message I had ever heard. I knew when I was half way through listening that what he was saying was logical, and historically correct, as well as extremely well presented. That was the beginning, the rest is long, and some of it supernatural but I found out that God does exist, decided I wanted to be His friend, asked Him and He said yes He wanted to be my friend as well. We became most excellent friends and He has given me many gifts none of which I deserve or use as much as I should but I assume any one who knows Him understands that in our freindship He is the one who is the better at being a friend than I or we are.

Answer 3

Not I. Been atheist for most of my life. Had a short stint as a Christian when I was young and I guess I was a "true believer" before I rejected it due to the obvious self-contradictions in the Bible, as well as the illogical answers various church figures gave me to explain them. Sadly, even at 7 years old, logic and reasoning figured more strongly for me than faith.

Later on in life I tried Theravedic Buddhism, which is ok and all, but I've never been one for moderation in all things, if you know what I mean.

Still, much of the world has converted to monotheism in the form of Christianity or Islam. For example, you can assume pretty much everyone in South/Central America are Catholic. Of course they were already theistic. Same goes for Indonesia, another hotbed of successful missionary work. Frankly, atheism is extremely uncommon in the world, and usually speaks of a very rational, critically thinking, asocial mind since religion is one of the great constants of human civilization. As such, an atheist is very unlikely to convert to any of the popular religions which are riddled with self-contradictions and logical fallacies.

You could probably argue that the Russians and Chinese who convert to christianity are atheists who convert to theism, but frankly, they're a superstitious lot who were only called atheists because their government demanded they be, so I don't think they really count.

Answer 4

I was going through the same question just a little while ago. I wanted to know if there was a God, and I looked everywhere for proof. I discovered that there is no absolute proof there is a God. But you can believe that your life means something more than just being born-having a family-working for the family-dying (children repeat). And i also believe that for sure, a universe created by chance is definitely not possible. So, yah, i still have my doubts about God's existence, i'm still trying to prove it to myself, but i guess i never can, i just need to live my life to its fullest for God, because he is my best option in this life. Sin gets you nowhere

Answer 5

I have read and examined a lot of spiritual texts including the Bible, Bhavigad Gita, Upanishads,Torah, Talmud, Zohar, Tibetan book of the dead, Tao te ching.....
I have been to church, temple, mosque and worshiped with Christains, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus

The book that I read about all this stuff which makes the most sense is Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now"

Buy the CD version of this book and listen to it slowly and meditate to it....it will help you understand the natrue of universal reality ....and heres a clue....there is a universal intelligence and whether you call it GOD or the source or whatever it doesn't matter...and here is another clue......you get to this source by looking within...not without.

Good Luck!!

Answer 6

Atheists do convert, but I suspect in the West, the trend is in the opposite direction.

Expect to be told about Lee Strobel and how that somehow proves atheists are generally converting.

Answer 7

Yes. I'm here.But I also can recognize your motive for spending a lot of time attempting to put Christians down. One thing is for certain, your misery is something none of the Christians I know have. Deep down, if you where honest with yourself, the jealousy felt within you because of this fact may be a cause which makes you mad.
Perhaps you may lack the heart and conscience needed to get it
and because of this, if indeed this is the case with you ,I truly pity and feel sorry for you.

Answer 8

I was a hardcore atheist before I became a Christian a few months ago. Atheism didn't really make sense, and Christianity does, so I started to believe in it. So, yes it does happen.

Answer 9

It does make ya contemplate whether they even have been ever the previous label they claimed. i've got bounced around some different labels alongside the way. leaping precise into new issues substitute into one way I used to learn it wasn't for me. i'd desire to assert i used to be those labels & then grew to become atheist. or perhaps i substitute into merely an agnostic atheist all alongside. testing countless issues to make certain. no longer a huge deal the two way i think.

Answer 10

Yea i'm pretty sure i've never met anyone who has converted form atheism to theism. The few examples i've heard of are old people who are going threw midlife crisis and hate their life, so they allow themselves to believe there is another life after this one just so they can get threw the day.