For the ex-Atheist?

Question

I am really interested for those who say that they used to be atheists and turned into believers. My question is what did make you change your mind the most:

- You became a Deist* as it seemed possible somehow (May be God was there in the Big Band, and then everything worked on its own as science explains it!)
- Agnosticism sounded like a good decision until further notice from God.
- Found Jesus (in the closet or somewhere else! and became a Christian).
- Fear of Hell ( Became a Mormon! or converted to the religion with a high probability of being true!).
- Creationism made more sense than evolution so God sounded like a better bet.
- You became a Unitarian Universalism (I mean religions may look stupid but most of them share the same universe truth)
- I Had to!
- Other reason

Note: Pastafarians, Jedi, and all followers of parody religions will be considered still Atheist!

*Deist: The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assumin

ex- Believer's comments are welcome too. I mean its 2 points for YOU, and good ideas for US! I will probably give the 10 points to the most convincing Believer. If there isn't then I will pick the one that never came to my mind!

Hmm.. didn't expect that many Atheists answers. Its like when you ask Atheists you got more Believers, and when you ask ex-Atheists you get more Atheists!

I think I learned something new today when asking questions!

Do I have to ask another question "For the Atheists" and waste another 5 points! Where the believers at!

Answer 1

By Sterces: "I am terrified of death. I dont think anything happens when you die.. which terrifies me. Just not existing sounds horrible. Even though I fear death so much, I will never become so ignorant as to believe in "heaven and hell" or anything associated with religion "

I am a Christian, never an atheist, but chill because I'm not about to start spouting John 3:16. You can only recite the same tired verse so many times before it starts sounding like a chant or something.

I am by nature a logical person, so I can appreciate the atheist's view. But if you peel another layer off that onion, you'll find that maybe being a Christian isn't so illogical or ridiculous as you thought. Sterces points out exactly why I am a Christian. I'm definitely an independant thinker. I question my beliefs scrutinously. Sometimes I end up scratching my head (evolution vs. creation?) but when I'm stumped like that, I put the question on the back burner until later (maybe it'll make more sense after I've learned more about other things). I think it's foolish to pretend that we could possibly know enough to figure out everything. Figuring out where we came from and where we're going are questions that are WAY too big for us right now.

I have found two absolute truths: Love is good, absence of love is bad. Love is truth. From it all good things flow, beginning with a love for the self and for the power beyond ourselves that brought us into existence to marvel at it. Living for one's self is pointless. You push and strive to have a productive and profitable life. You create a family business and make a lot of money to leave to your kids who, in turn, push and strive for a productive and profitable life. If you are living without anything higher than yourself to answer to - anything higher than yourself to please - you're missing something. When the buck stops with you, you feel an inordinate amount of stress, and you look above you for direction and reassurance and see nothing but empty space. We are hierarchical by nature, I think. We need to learn to be more cooperative than hierarchical. We just aren't geared for that much responsibility. We are not omniscient, hence the unanswered questions that bounce around inside our skulls.

Anyway. My point is that living a life where you have no hope for anything more that the - sometimes sh*tty - existence we live here on earth, is not fulfilling. If this life is all I've got, then I guess I'd better make the most of it. I'm so used to people thinking I'm weird it doesn't really faze me much anymore. So I've really got nothing to lose by believing what others insist are nothing but fairytales. I'll be thought of as a nut-case, but that's nothing new. As long as I treat others in a decent way and behave well, I don't see why my beliefs should affect their opinion of me, and if they do, then that is their problem. Right? Yes, I'm wearing my rose-coloured glasses as we speak. ;) But again, that's my prerogative. You can insist that there is nothing after death, but I choose not to believe it. Why? Because you can't stop me from believing it, you can't prove that I'm wrong, and quite simply it makes my life worth living. It gives me something to hope for. I won't lie, I am afraid of dying. I am afraid of the pain and discomfort of that transition, but I'm quite at peace with my fate after all is said and done. I just hope I don't die a horrible gruesome death, or a long slow and painful death. Bad for me, bad for my loved ones.

So if after we're all dead we find that we've turned to nothing but dust, then you can go ahead and laugh at me and say "I told you so!" Oh, but wait! That's right. We're not going to be around to worry about it, are we? Nothin' but a dial tone.

But, if I'm right...then it means that I'm still going to a very very good place, and (I'm quite sorry to say) you won't...because you have chosen to reject a very simple gift. As they say, the yoke is easy and burden is light. Nothing to it (so far). It feels as natural as breathing. It's a life of service to others, and it's a life I choose willingly. For me it's a win-win situation, and it's not logical for me to live any other way.

I don't expect to change any minds; I'm just offering my POV and explaining why I believe what I do. God bless.

Answer 2

I was raised Christian, was atheist from age 16-20, and agnostic from age 20-present (age 27). I prefer agnosticism mostly on epistemic principles, about how you can't really disprove anything, and I believe in keeping an open mind and being agnostic about a lot of things. I don't have a belief in God, but I think it's silly to define myself by something I don't have a belief in.

Answer 3

I too, am an atheist. I've never believed in God. There are some ex-atheists who have embraced religion, including several well known ones such as Anthony Flew and C.S. Lewis, but I think that statistics will show that it is more frequent that believers will become atheists.

Answer 4

Okay... I am an atheist.. not an ex-atheist... but I want to say that I will never believe in a god.. I will never follow any religion. I am terrified of death. I dont think anything happens when you die.. which terrifies me. Just not existing sounds horrible. Even though I fear death so much, I will never become so ignorant as to believe in "heaven and hell" or anything associated with religion

Answer 5

Technically, everyone that is a 'beleiver' changed from Atheist to a believer. We are born atheists by default. We have NO REASON to assume a god exists until someone (our parents/parent's church) brainwashes kids to believe in it. Religion has to be taught and/or coerced.

I think a lot of "long-term" atheists turn to religion because when they get older, they get scared. They look at their life and realize "Oh Sh1t, what if there IS a god" and use it as a crutch to feel better about themselves or something that happened in their life, or to feel better about Death itself, since they become closer and closer to it.

Answer 6

you know , all that stuff sounds like a great story and it would be great if everything could be answered right there in one book. but the longer you look at it the more you realized that its impossible for noah to build an ark with every animal and i dont want to lie to myself

Answer 7

Sorry, can't help you. I'm an ex-Christian turned atheist also. I think there's alot more of us.

Answer 8

I was a Christian for two dozen years and now I'm an atheist.........does that help?

Answer 9

"Odd" "coincidences" began to happen far to frequently, like all the time.

Life began to "mock" my thoughts.

Everything began to make sense.

I can now distinguish the source of my thoughts.