Were atheists who converted to believing really atheists at all?

Question

I find it unbelievable that an established atheist can become a true follower. Believers who were once atheists - were you really just an agnostic who used the atheist title to be more cool or were you truly an atheist?

Stormilutionist --> This is not an accusation. It's merely a question. I questions whether atheists were truly atheists when they converted. What am I accusing them of? I wonder if their stance was truly that of an atheist or possibly of an agnostic, who by definition questions the existence of a supreme being and is unsure as to one's existence. And, further, how does an atheist shed their belief system that no god exists? Sorry if you take it as an accusation or that I'm somehow stooping to a lower level, there by giving "us" a bad name.

Answer 1

Atheists, generally, are atheists because they have investigated and found no evidence of a god. Provide such and they may change their minds.

Having never seen any such evidence, I suspect that any such conversions stem, indeed, from a non-true atheist beginning. If it were otherwise, the converts should share their finds with the world.

Answer 2

Because I'm not an atheist who converted, I can't speak for them, but I would just be surprised to hear that any true atheist ever became a believer. Most atheists just have reached a point where even the *idea* that there is a magical, invisible, super-being living in the sky that can think, feel, and control things seems so absurd, that it would be just as difficult to convince them of the existence of God as it would be the tooth fairy. My personal guess is that they were more agnostic.

Answer 3

I would say a large amount of believers where once Atheist. Some for longer times that others, but most people have had a time they didn't believe there is a God. I don't know what has made one Atheist become a believer and another not, but I'd say it would have to be possible for someone to truly not believe in God and then something happening that causes them to change their mind.

Answer 4

No! I was once an atheist. I believed in the Big bang and evolution, But in my studies I found I was Wrong. Those theory's are just junk. Nothing more. Lucy is a chimp. The big bang is a dud. Nothing comes out of an explosion but destruction. The Bible in the original language has not contradictions. The history has been proved by archeology. The science has been made fact and the prophecy are coming true.

Answer 5

That's a bit harsh don't you think? I'm sure they believed they were atheists....just like I believed I was a christian before I became an atheist.....please don't stoop to some others' level on here and make accusations such as this...it doesn't do our cause any good.....

Answer 6

No, I was once an atheist.
I had come to the conclusion of atheism based upon my previous indoctrination that God is love. By reason of the fact that so many people suffer, and that the mass of suffering was at the time, in contradiction to a "God of love" I had concluded that there can not possibly be a God.
Yet, after many years, and the fact that to me, evolution and bio-genesis could not answer the vast array of lifeforms, I took another look at the possibility of a creator, and with a humble approach, came to my current conclusions.
The key here is that humility was a prerequisite, to being receptive to creation, and the totality of the concept's understanding.
Of course I hope that all of you here can acknowledge that we each one of us have the right to change our minds about any of our beliefs.

Answer 7

I myself, am agnostic.

My mother was raised catholic & is now the most devout atheist I have ever met.

I find it kind of ironic that she holds as fastly to her belief, with no room for possibility or the acknowledgement that we can not possibly know everything, as say... my catholic grandparents.

In my experience, atheism is another form of religion, based on faith that no god exists.

As an agnostic, I have no issue with anyone else having faith, either in the existence of a supreme being or the lack there of.
Just so long as they don't insist on pushing their beliefs down my throat & demanding that everyone in the world believe the same thing that they do.

Answer 8

I was actually an atheist before I became a Christian. I remember laughing at anyone who believed in God or any kind of supreme being at one point in my life. So, I'm sure that I was an atheist.

One of the most convincing arguments for me was just random chance. If you think science has all of the answers, then you have to believe in astronomical random chances. In fact, the chance that life just started randomly on this planet is calculated at 1 in 10^60. That's just for how life started. A lof of astronomical chances had to happen after that for life to develop correctly. I just couldn't logically believe in that.

Answer 9

I was believer once a real holy - roller come home to Jesus believer.
I can never see me going back to that mindset EVER.
but you also hear from some former Atheists who have turned into believers so I guess it is possible but i do see more believers turning Atheist/Agnsotic than the other way around

Answer 10

you're born atheist, like the way you're born gay. Atheism, by using definition, is the DISBELIEF in deities - not something greater. You get converted to theism, to not atheism. I actual have by no skill tried to transform everyone. i come across loopholes in a theist's argumentation that leads them to question their very own ideals, inflicting them to push aside their theory. mom and dad indoctrinate their babies continuously, that is in basic terms human beings make the indoctrination of babies the style of undesirable thought. mom and dad instill their values into their very own babies and that they are responsible for them. the only undesirable section approximately indoctrination is that if dogma gets interior the way of reason, and it is the reason some atheists, like Richard Dawkins, attributes the indoctrination of religion to newborn abuse. non secular human beings ought to teach their babies a thank you to think of, yet not what to think of. I hate calling myself an atheist. It makes it like atheism is a faith/cult O.o