The question raised by the opening post is valid, but it should be explicitely rephrased as “what would it take to turn an atheist into a Christian?” By asking the wrong question, at least two fallacies are committed.
First, atheists will generally grant that a god may exist - with the common exception of the Abrahamic god, which they consider logically impossible. Even if a persuasive argument is made, for an atheist not subject to Christian dogma it does not follow from “a god exists” that “the Christian god exists”.
Second, even if the existence of the Christian god is proven and it is further proven that no other gods exist, it does not follow that all atheists would convert to Christianity. Many atheists consider the Christian god as immoral, if not downright evil, and would be compelled to reject such a god - even at the cost of eternal damnation.
uncleauberon:
{He was recently healed from a heart condition - that wasn’t even enough to open his eyes}
Archbishop 10-K:
When it comes to intellectual atheists (as opposed to atheists who are just lazy/want to be cool) then I think Auberon hit the nail right on the head. That’s pretty much what it would take to change an atheist’s mind since most atheists are prone to dismiss almost everything else as coincidence.
The so-called miracles are not persuasive to atheists. E.g., some people recover from heart disease, many die of it - prayers or not. Ignoring the scepticism concerning the divine origin of alleged miracles as opposed to (possibly unexplained) natural causes, this argument boils down to the fallacy of “99 times out of 100 the outcome is bad, so a single good outcome is a miracle”.
Further, from an atheist’s point of view, even if granting a miracle of supernatural origin they can conclude that the miracle was effected by a Great Deceiver that prevents Christians from worshipping the True God.
Archbishop 10-K:
So for now, the best method of at least opening up an atheist’s mind to conversion would be:
1.) Living the faith, or setting a holy example. Many atheists have stereotypes in their mind that religion is necessarily corrupt and evil, probably because of bad examples.
Sadly, they have good reason to consider some, if not all, organized religions as corrupt and themselves as a persecuted minority. As long as atheists perceive that Christians stereotypically define an atheist as the exact opposite of a perfect Christian, as opposed to a fellow human being that simply doesn’t share their beliefs, why would they be receptive to Christian dogma?
Archbishop 10-K:
2.) Being an intellectual Christian. That is, being able to explain your belief in God through logic and philosophy, and being able to quote the Bible and the Church’s doctrines and dogmas by memory (to dispel the attitude that a Catholic doesn’t know his own faith.)
Any honest debate is much more likely to result in a Christian doubting his or her faith than the reverse. The fundamental problem in such a debate is that a Christian is both constrained by dogma and has the burden of proof.
Quoting scripture, by the way, is singularly unhelpful in the given context, because it simply amounts to an argument, valid or invalid, from disputed premises.
Finally, to give an answer to the restated original question: It will take a period of personal crisis and an atheist that will ultimately prefer escapism and seek comfort rather than face a harsh reality.
It would be interesting to see how many Atheists remain.
