Famous death bed conversions?

Question

can you name some? please don't say Darwin, that's been proven to be an urban legend.

Answer 1

Jesus - he said "OK, I admit I made it all up". But don't tell anyone will you?

Answer 2

I honestly don’t have knowledge of a famous person, who was adamantly against religious adherence of any sort that converted to some form of theism before they died. It is possible for this to have occurred, and many rumors of famous secularists converting to a religion abound among religious circles. How many of these stories are true, and how much of it is mere conjecture that is conjured up by imaginative Christians in the efforts to win converts and edify the faithful, is hard to say.

I just have one question to those Christians who take delight in deathbed conversions. What exactly does it prove? All it points to is that a man whose body is withering, and most likely whose mind is faltering, is converting to provide comfort to those around him who probably believe in such things as God, heaven, and eternal torment for the unbeliever. What are these conversion supposed to signify? It signifies that a normally rational man will act irrationally when comforted with the greatest and feared unknown that man can face – his own demise.

Deathbed conversions don’t prove the veracity of religious belief themselves. All they do prove is that rational men can be compelled to do irrational things when faced with oblivion. If a man, nearing death, all of sudden professed his belief in the infinite goodness of Zeus or Brahma would any Christian say that the belief in the reality of Greek Gods, and Hindu Gods is legitimate, or that at the very least, those beliefs should be accorded the same degree of respect as their own? I think not. So why would Christians think that the supposed deathbed conversion of life long famous atheists be a cogent argument in favor of theism? We don’t take into account the pronouncements or the change of heart of the terminally ill in areas of science, engineering, law, or any other area of human concern, so why would we treat a man’s profession of faith just before his expiration as a sign of the truth of religion?

If anything deathbed conversions substantiate what atheists have stated for years. Religion plays on the trepidation of men, and it capitalizes off of their fear of death specifically. Religion can only thrive when men are at their weakness Deathbed conversions are not a testament to religion’s greatness but an indication of religion’s depravity.

Answer 3

Yes,my brother that was agnostic most of his life.He had cirrhosis of the liver and hep c.I went Thanksgiving to have dinner with him and his family and he said,Jackie it is through you showing me the love that is of God that has converted me.
He passed away 2 weeks later,his wife called for me to come to the hospital to see him before they took the body,I didn't want to see him dead but the family said his wife won't leave until I come in so I did but it was right to do because they had his shirt off,he had drowned in his own blood but around his neck was a brass cross that his daughter said he made.Now I know that my brother would not have had that on his neck if he didn't know what it meant.Also he was a metal smith.
Philip wasn't as famous as you mean I am sure but he had a reputation as an gifted brick mason,metal smith,musician,and poet.

Answer 4

The Russian spy Yuvenenko (I hope that's right),converted to Islam so?

Answer 5

good one Pangel! :)