Converts from Atheism?

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I was wondering – is there anyone here who has become a Catholic convert from atheism and has any thoughts on the subject they would like to share? Personally, I was raised agnostic, never really was exposed to a pro or anti God viewpoint (in the sense of believing or not believing), so while I’m familiar with some of the arguments laid out against the existence of God, I don’t have experience with the viewpoint on a gut level and what moved a person to become Catholic from the atheist position.
 
As an ex-atheist, I have a few thoughts:
  • When you deeply think about it without the transcendent there is no objective meaning to life nor an objective system of morality. If you disbelieve in God because you want objectivity this should disturb you, because you want to remain skeptical because you will not accept the testimonies of Christians who experience something after seeking Jesus simply because it is not objective evidence, yet you are willing to pretend your life has meaning or that ethics is universal despite it all being subjective and subject to illogical notions.
  • It is written that if you seek God you will find Him. Thus remaining a dispassionate skeptic is not an option. In the face of hell there is eternal loss if you do not bother to seek God and there is one. If you seek and find one there is eternal gain. If you spend your life seeking and run into dead-ends you lost nothing because your life already lacks meaning and in the face of eternal nothingness your legacy or happy memories don’t matter. Thus it is in your rational interest to seek the truth rather than wait for the truth to seek you, even if it costs you time or worldly pleasures.
  • If there is a personal God, and He is the Christian God, praying to Him to help you believe is likely to work. If not you can move onto the next religion. You must pray despite your skepticism and take it on faith that if He exists He will help you believe. You should not worry being a fool praying to nobody, because being a fool who never honestly tried seeking and losing everything is worse. It is like someone pointing at the sky and telling you to look for yourself if you don’t believe, and you refusing because you think that by looking you may fool your eyes and believe because you are predisposed to see what is not there simply because you are looking.
My prayers were answered.
 
Thank you for a very thoughtful and deep reply. I have found in my own life that once I started approaching God, that I could not imagine life without God, not in the sense of being a crutch, but it would be cutting myself off from joy intentionally. The “gravity of God” is rather amazing.
 
I am willing to live with suffering. But i am not willing to live with the kind of suffering that has no ultimate meaning or moral value.

That’s partly why i believe.

The other reason is that it is logically impossible for me to deny Gods existence without abandoning logic itself. The existence of both are inextricably linked.

That’s another reason why i believe.

The the most important reason i believe in a God that is intrinsically the perfection of love, is because i experience objective universal moral values. Because i am honest, i have no choice but to admit that God is real.

There is no where for me to hide.😦
 
Hello,

I could have come from the same exact background as you. Raised by atheist/agnostic parents. Never even went to a single church service till I was 42 (am 43 now). I’m going through RCIA at the moment.

Throughout my life I always felt like something was missing, either something was wrong with me or something was wrong with the rest of the world. I never felt the presence of God in my life, things felt distinctly random. I was sometimes jealous of people who were spiritual and felt the presence of God when they prayed.

Not too long ago I finally came to the conclusion that I must make an active effort to seek God, even if I can’t feel his presence in my day-to-day life. What made me realize that I wasn’t alone in that is reading an article about Mother Theresa who also had that same problem. That sometimes, no matter how she prayed, she couldn’t feel God. The difference is, is she had faith, regardless of what she could feel, or not feel.

So that is what I’m working on right now. Faith. To persevere, pray, study and live a life geared towards seeking God. I figure this… even if it takes me the rest of my life to feel God and his Presence, and the very last minute of my life on earth is all that I get to feel of Him, that’s ok with me. It was well worth it.
 
Sebrina said:
Hello,

I could have come from the same exact background as you. Raised by atheist/agnostic parents. Never even went to a single church service till I was 42 (am 43 now). I’m going through RCIA at the moment.

Throughout my life I always felt like something was missing, either something was wrong with me or something was wrong with the rest of the world. I never felt the presence of God in my life, things felt distinctly random. I was sometimes jealous of people who were spiritual and felt the presence of God when they prayed.

Not too long ago I finally came to the conclusion that I must make an active effort to seek God, even if I can’t feel his presence in my day-to-day life. What made me realize that I wasn’t alone in that is reading an article about Mother Theresa who also had that same problem. That sometimes, no matter how she prayed, she couldn’t feel God. The difference is, is she had faith, regardless of what she could feel, or not feel.

So that is what I’m working on right now. Faith. To persevere, pray, study and live a life geared towards seeking God. I figure this… even if it takes me the rest of my life to feel God and his Presence, and the very last minute of my life on earth is all that I get to feel of Him, that’s ok with me. It was well worth it.
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Very inspiring and beautiful.
 
jc4751 said:
I was wondering – is there anyone here who has become a Catholic convert from atheism and has any thoughts on the subject they would like to share? Personally, I was raised agnostic, never really was exposed to a pro or anti God viewpoint (in the sense of believing or not believing), so while I’m familiar with some of the arguments laid out against the existence of God, I don’t have experience with the viewpoint on a gut level and what moved a person to become Catholic from the atheist position.
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I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. It led to the worst decision of my life which completely stripped away any faith I might have had in the human capacity for reason and goodness.

People will always fail. The person staring back at you in the mirror will always fail. But, if you have God, you always have somewhere to go for strength, guidance, and support.
 
Most of the ex-atheist conversion stories I have heard went from going from atheist to evangelical protestant to catholic and not straight from atheist to catholic.
 
CompSciGuy said:
Most of the ex-atheist conversion stories I have heard went from going from atheist to evangelical protestant to catholic and not straight from atheist to catholic.
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Anything is possible. Especially if you have a lot of really good people praying for you all along the way. 👍
 
CompSciGuy said:
Most of the ex-atheist conversion stories I have heard went from going from atheist to evangelical protestant to catholic and not straight from atheist to catholic.
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I will say that Catholicism has a bad reputation because of all the hatred in the world for it. You hear about the inquisition, crusades and sex scandals and you think “How could Jesus be here?” Yet, because God has given me experiences pointing to stigmata and water and blood, plus I was able to research what the first Christians believed, I realized Protestantism is a house build of cards. To remain ignorant of history is the only way to remain Protestant.

Another thing is that atheists are used to being “free thinkers” so they have a distaste of dogma and following morals they don’t understand.
 
InJesusItrust said:
I will say that Catholicism has a bad reputation because of all the hatred in the world for it. You hear about the inquisition, crusades and sex scandals and you think “How could Jesus be here?” Yet, because God has given me experiences pointing to stigmata and water and blood, plus I was able to research what the first Christians believed, I realized Protestantism is a house build of cards. To remain ignorant of history is the only way to remain Protestant.

Another thing is that atheists are used to being “free thinkers” so they have a distaste of dogma and following morals they don’t understand.
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“Free thinkers”…that’s a head shaker. I can’t think of anything that all the free thinking got me. What are free thinkers free of? Free to be frustrated, confused, and forever stuffed into the solitary confinement cell of your own mind?

That’s all I found.

This quote is great:

I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.

Harriet Tubman

That’s the trouble. Just got back from adoration and was reading Peace of Soul as recommended in Bible study. Wow, Blessed Bishop Fulton Sheen was spot on. It warmed all the cockles of this former psych department internee.
 
I went from atheism protestant to Catholic. I struggled with atheism because there is no objective morals in atheism.
 
mahlou.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-conversion-story.html

Here is a story of an atheist who promised to attend mass if two conditions were met. Here he relates the conditions.

“There is an employee at work whose wife and children live 4 hours away because she has not been able to find closer work and the family cannot live on one salary. My networking has failed, and even though I have put her on the job lists for my division, the hiring panels won’t take her because she is not qualified for anything we do. After 6 months of effort, I have been unable to help her. So, if you exist, find her a job.”

“After saying this, I had a second thought, a rather fateful one: “And, by the way, so-and-so, another employee, has been missing 2-3 days of work a week because of a back problem, and this has been going on for 6 months, too. Heal so-and-so, and I will be in church every week.” Now that was a promise I was sure I would not have to keep!”

"I opened my email. Doesn’t everyone start and finish the day with email nowadays?
And there I saw it. A note from a senior manager in another division with the name of the wife for whom I was trying to find a job in the subject line. A little shaken, I opened the note, and there was an incredible message. “One of my employees sat on a hiring panel for you as an outside expert recently and noticed that one of the candidates could not possibly ever hold a position in your division because she does not have the right qualifications. However, we have just opened a new unit and need people with exactly her qualifications. We could hire her today. Will you release her name to us?”

"So-and-so worked in our division for another 9 months before moving on to a new job and, while with us, NEVER missed another day of work for health reasons!!!
 
jc4751 said:
I was wondering – is there anyone here who has become a Catholic convert from atheism and has any thoughts on the subject they would like to share? Personally, I was raised agnostic, never really was exposed to a pro or anti God viewpoint (in the sense of believing or not believing), so while I’m familiar with some of the arguments laid out against the existence of God, I don’t have experience with the viewpoint on a gut level and what moved a person to become Catholic from the atheist position.
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Upon becoming privately atheistic, I realized my purpose in life was to experience greater happiness without losing any peace in all relationships, including within my self. Through experience, the Wise Teachings found in the Bible were evident (Initially, Love is patient and kind; Patience and Kindness are greatest; in alignment with Patience by definition is necessary to experience peace in our world; and Kindness by definition is necessary to experience happiness). When trying to pursue greater oneness with this goal, the Wise Teachings and Demonstration of Jesus Christ embracing the Cross and more of the Catechisms of His Catholic Church became evident.
Then, as I pondered the means to fulfill this experience, I realized only a limitless number of true friends could fulfill this goal. This made the Wisdom of Jesus being God as well as laying His life down for friends become evident.
Then, as I ponder the means to create an ever-lasting society of a limitless number of true friends for the experience of limitless happiness with unbreakable peace for all, including the self, given the Creator gets to participate as a friend, and the Creator initially exists in complete solitude, the Wisdom and Practices of the Catholic Church: The Holy Trinity, the Nicene Creed, the Sacraments, and the Catechisms become more evident with each passing day!

Thanks for the fun food for thought!
 
The stupidity of death.
Death makes everything meaningless.
Even the death by old age of the animals:by eolutionary process animals should live longer and longer; because of the experience and extra-resources in any circumstance adults would be 1 step ahead of the young; yet in the prime of their life they start to decay…
 
Ion said:
The stupidity of death.
Death makes everything meaningless.
Even the death by old age of the animals:by eolutionary process animals should live longer and longer; because of the experience and extra-resources in any circumstance adults would be 1 step ahead of the young; yet in the prime of their life they start to decay…
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…confusing and off-topic but ok…
if you are a Christian then you must know that death comes before eternal life and the resurrection
 
CompSciGuy said:
…confusing and off-topic but ok…
if you are a Christian then you must know that death comes before eternal life and the resurrection
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My remark was from the atheistic point of view: death is meaningless and stupid.
Christ won against it for us.
Is not off-topic.
Unfortunately, young atheists judge like this: i’m not old, i’m not ill, i’m not unlucky, i’m not stupid therefore is a long time until my death, so I don’t care.
But that time will come.
 
Ion said:
My remark was from the atheistic point of view: death is meaningless and stupid.
Christ won against it for us.
Is not off-topic.
Unfortunately, young atheists judge like this: i’m not old, i’m not ill, i’m not unlucky, i’m not stupid therefore is a long time until my death, so I don’t care.
But that time will come.
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Atheism doesn’t age well. I’ve seen it. There is a beauty to old age where God is welcomed.

The New Atheists are after the young who still feel the false sense of invincibility youth offers. Dawkins, according to the excited chatter of an atheist “friend” on social media, is writing a children’s book–or so I hear. How terrible is that? To try to remove faith from children and wreck them while they’re innocent? 😦
 
Ion said:
My remark was from the atheistic point of view: death is meaningless and stupid.
Christ won against it for us.
Is not off-topic.
Unfortunately, young atheists judge like this: i’m not old, i’m not ill, i’m not unlucky, i’m not stupid therefore is a long time until my death, so I don’t care.
But that time will come.
Click to expand...
I see now what you are saying.
 
knotanes said:
Dawkins, according to the excited chatter of an atheist “friend” on social media, is writing a children’s book–or so I hear. How terrible is that? To try to remove faith from children and wreck them while they’re innocent? 😦
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I think he sponsors an atheist summer camp for children. I can’t find a link to it but will post it if I find it. The kids learn how to refute the existence of God just like they would argue there are no unicorns. Wow. Isn’t he a true visionary of their movement?
 
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