Have any of you converted from Atheism?

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Are there any Christians of any denomination that have converted from Atheism or Agnosticism and are still Christian Today? I am not having any doubts in my belief in the Lord God and Jesus Christ but am just curious.
 
We are out here? Do you wish to know if there are more of us then cradle types?
 
I was wondering for personal experiences of conversion and reasons, as stated before, out of curiosity.
 
Giod888 said:
I was wondering for personal experiences of conversion and reasons, as stated before, out of curiosity.
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Reasons? My reason was logic. I could not logically believe (and make no mistake atheism is a belief or faith, no matter anyones personal opinion) in a lack of a “prime mover”. This is what converted me to theism. My conversion back to Christianity (I was raised baptist) is a much longer story.

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I converted from Agnosticism (of the “It may be possible to know, but right now I don’t” variety) to an Eastern pantheistic Zen/Tao/Vedanta blend. From there, converted to Christianity. Why? Because I became convinced it was true. Probably the two arguments that carried the most weight with me were Lewis’ trilemma and the circumstantial case for Jesus’ resurrection being factual.
 
FidesSpesCarita said:
Reasons? My reason was logic. I could not logically believe (and make no mistake atheism is a belief or faith, no matter anyones personal opinion) in a lack of a “prime mover”. This is what converted me to theism. My conversion back to Christianity (I was raised baptist) is a much longer story.

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What do you mean by “prime mover” ?
 
I was raised Catholic and went to a Catholic School until the age of 11 or 12. Sure, I believed, though I don’t think I was convinced. I’ve always been kind of a doubter in all parts of my life. Anyway, I didn’t really feel one way or the other through high school. My family didn’t attend Mass or really do much.

I became an agnostic probably around the age of 20 and I guess I kind of followed some sort of unitarian belief. Needless to say this began my decent into attempting to completely erase the existence of God. It wasn’t long before I became a self-professed atheist. A lot of things started going wrong in my life and they were sort of unexplainable.

During my quest to disprove God, I found him. Slowly, but I began to feel more comfortable. Again, back to being an agnostic. But, my curiosity was peeked and I began studying world religions. After much research and, eventually, prayer, I received an answer from God. I found what many have known for a long time – Jesus Christ was Lord.

I did a lot of looking into the various Christian denominations and felt that the Roman Catholic Church is, indeed, Christ’s Church. I’ve even convinced a few others to follow suit. It seems that even my Mormon friend is on his way to conversion. It’s funny how it works. One needs to look no further than St. Paul. Saul’s conversion to the faith was miraculous, and I feel very blessed to be able to follow in his footsteps.

It’s hard to focus on the fact that we operate in God’s time. There is not rhyme or reason other than the fact that I was ready. Now I can honestly say that I’m a better Christian for it. Far from perfect, but much better.

God Bless and Semper Fidelis!
 
Giod888 said:
Are there any Christians of any denomination that have converted from Atheism or Agnosticism and are still Christian Today? I am not having any doubts in my belief in the Lord God and Jesus Christ but am just curious.
Click to expand...
I was an atheist for some time, but converted at around the age of 28. I’d had Sunday School training years earlier as a Presbyterian, so when I did become Christian, that was where I first went.

At the time I was at the tail end of the worst four years in my life,a nd I thought there had to be more to life than that… But I also seemed to be getting a sort of spiritual pressure to go to the local Presbyterian church. I resisted for a while, but eventually went.

I think God wanted me to go at that particular time because that was when I met my “old Protestant pastor” as he was the resident pastor. I often quote him in my posts.

He was actuallly Methodist by training, and although he ended up discouraging me, I also learnt a great deal from him. Fortunately I missed out on being led by one of the hardiine Presbyterian boys, otherwise I’m not sure what might have happened. I’d either have become as Pharasaical as he was, or completely disillusioned.

A similar “spiritual push” some years later when I was feeling dissatisfied with the Protestant churches directed me towards the Catholic Church. Again I resisted for a while until God got fed up and push became shove.

At this stage there don’t seem to be any spiritual shoves forthcoming, although I sometimes think I ought to dabble in a Catholic Charismatic group. But I think I can also say I’m involved in too many things now. Something will have to give before that happens.

And I waste far too much time on this forum.
 
MrZetterlund said:
What do you mean by “prime mover” ?
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Everything which moves requires that it first BE moved by something other than itself: a rock does not push itself down a hill, a bullet does not decide that it does not want to be in motion any longer. Everything in motion requires that its movement be begun by something else which was/is moving. Thusly there must be a prime (first) mover which was self-motive, else you come to an infinite loop by which nothing could possibly have motion.

Pretty much the fundamental proof of the existence of A god. The Christian God requires something further.

Or something like that. Essentially there had to be ONE “thing” which initiated the universe we inhabit. And since we live in an anthropomorphic universe, it must be friendly to human life.

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Giod888 said:
I was wondering for personal experiences of conversion and reasons, as stated before, out of curiosity.
Click to expand...
Yes, after 20 years or so of atheism I figured out one day my atheism was based on a belief in God. ie, I had lots of criticism for religion based on “God did this or that”, and why would I believe in such a god? Around the same time, I started studying early Christianity, out of curiosity. I had over the years studied a few belief systems out of curiosity. Dabbled in a lot of different things.

The Trinity was really a stumper for me, so in my googling around I found that someone was going to teach a three night class on the Trinity, at a local Catholic Church. So I went, understood the doctrine of the Trinity a little better, and discovered that Catholicism uses faith and reason. Which, was intriguing to say the least, since I had always seen faith as unreasonable.

The Deacon who taught the class on the Trinity said that there would be more discussion on Catholic doctrine in the upcoming RCIA. I had discovered those four mysterious letters a little earlier and had already decided to check it out. I went to another RCIA at a different parish one time, and decided to attend the one where the Deacon had taught about the Trinity. I had no intention of converting, just very curious to understand Christianity, especially Catholicism.

So it is, I began my conversion, though I didn’t know it at the time. Prayer was especially difficult, beginning with the idea that I felt like I was talking to the air. It was ridiculous to me. But this same Deacon helped me out there, and I prayed even though I felt like I was talking to nothing. I read the Bible, which I had not done for a very long time, since I was a teenager, and eventually I found faith. Which to me, is a miracle. 🙂
 
Yes. I did.

I became Catholic shortly before entering undergraduate university. I had my reasons: historicity of the Gospel,early Christian perseuction, etc, etc, etc. I’m one of those teen Catholic converts. I now attend a FSSP/Tridentine Mass parish.

Somewhere towards the end of undergrad I bought into the New Atheism Movment (Dawkins, Dennet, Hitchens, etc). Eventually I came back to the Catholic Church and I will never leave again. All the cool kids are Catholic:cool::D.

While I was away from the Church for about 3 years (im 25 now and getting married) I got to know a Catholic girl that opened my eyes. I realized my leaving the Church was a stage of immature rebellion. I always maintained a strange respect for the Catholic Church. I even defended the Church…only to end the conversation with “oh I’m not Catholic”. I described myself as “atheist, agnostic, secular humanist, non-religious, etc”.

There are different types of Atheists, by the way. There are the immature rebellious ones, the “New Atheists”, the super anti religious ones, and the really nice ones. There are also mean and nice Christians, too.
I am also a Doctor of Medicine student. So yeah, I know science. I aced Genetics and Organic Chemistry. I still solve calculus and physics problems for fun, too.
 
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