Is it possible for a Religious person to go full circle and become atheist

[White_Tree]

Bart Ehrman is a fairly famous example. He is a very highly regarded scholar of biblical textual criticism. He grew up a fundamentalist, but ended up leaving his faith after his studies revealed how many contradictions there are in the New Testament source texts.

On the less high-profile side, a friend of mine who does counseling mentioned to me once that he knows a couple dozen priests who have lost their faith. Some of them, he said, leave the priesthood. Others chose to remain even though they don’t believe any more, because they often feel trapped in that life, for one reason or another, so they basically just go through the motions.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

I was talking more about the testimonies of people who shift from believer >> to non believer >> to believer again.

For people who’s religiosity is intellectually based, there seems to be an “atheist zone” in the level of knowledge and subsequent belief. Somewhere between “a little knowledge” and “a lot of knowledge”.

Of course, the reasons for belief vs nonbelief can’t be reduced to simple formulas. Everybody’s an individual.
Some people came out of concentration camps convinced there could be no God because people are so cruel, but others came out of concentration camps with the sense that there had to be something more good, transcendent and holy than the warped minds who came up with the cruelties they suffered.
There are believers and nonbelievers at the head of every art and science and they all have their stories to tell.

 

[englands123]

Others chose to remain even though they don’t believe any more, because they often feel trapped in that life, for one reason or another, so they basically just go through the motions.

Thank you for your honesty. I’m guessing with all that responsibility on their shoulders there must come great stress also. Being a priest cannot be easy.

 

[do_justly_love_mercy]

Yes, that makes sense. I thought you meant that most people who give up religion come back once they understand more. My experience has been that most people who give up religion don’t come back.

 

[Salibi]

My experience has been that most people who give up religion don’t come bac

I have been on-and-off a lot in my life…but mine isn’t an abandonment of religion as much as it is dryness of faith.

I do think it would be very difficult for me to completely abandon religion. I had a very severe dry period recently due to a plethora of problems that just piled up but now I’m making a comeback.

Just a normal faith life. They have their highs and lows. Perseverance and a conscious decision to choose God is what makes the difference.

 

[VanitasVanitatum]

We’ve all heard the old saying , better to have loved and lost.

That saying isn’t neccessarily true.

 

[ColoradoCatholic]

I’ve definitely heard about it.

IMO I kinda think these choices to “become atheist” is more about wanting to live your own lifestyle than anything else. Maybe I’m a bit biased, but to me, logically you can only go as far as being Agnostic. You can’t prove that God doesn’t exist, and on the flip side, you can’t prove that he does exist. This is why faith is essential.

However, the prerequisite of that argument is that you have enough information, education, and time to think about these things and make a decision based on the evidence for or against. Some people simply don’t have enough time, and don’t think enough for themselves, to either look at the arguments from both sides or not. Unless they are invincibly ignorant, I think everyone knows deep down that they shouldn’t write God off the list of possibilities. But that’s just me…

 

[do_justly_love_mercy]

Yes, I can certainly relate to that. It’s not as if my faith has been constant throughout my life. There was a time when I was quite far from the Church in terms of attendance and lifestyle. But my faith never deserted me entirely. I never would have said that I had rejected God or religion. I was thinking more of people who become convinced atheists and give up their faith entirely. I have a friend from Ireland who wrote to his diocesan bishop requesting that his baptism be erased from the Church records as he wished to renounce Christianity completely.

 

[Mrchatsworth]

Most atheists I’ve met were at one time religious or Christian. A couple were raised in atheistic or agnostic or apathetic homes but mostly I’ve found at some point atheists were at one point Christian or religious. The full circle part is when they revert!

 

[FiveLinden]

I’m perplexed. Englands123 how can you not know people who have been religious and have become atheists? The world is full of them (us).

I noted you don’t want to ask your atheist friend about it. Feel free to ask me,

 

[Dan_Defender]

There is the famous case of Jean Meslier in the 17th century, who was often quoted by Voltaire.

 

[Freddy]

Most atheists I’ve met were at one time religious or Christian. A couple were raised in atheistic or agnostic or apathetic homes but mostly I’ve found at some point atheists were at one point Christian or religious.

In my case I’d say Christian but not so much religious. I didn’t know anyone who wasn’t a Christian until I was about 17 or so. Or to be more accurate, nobody I didn’t know wasn’t Christian. I assumed that it was entirely natural. You believed in God because…well, there weren’t any other options.

But the stories I was told I treated much like I treated the stories from Greek mythology. They were told in a way that was meant to help us live a better life. It wasn’t until I was about 13 or so that there was a gradual realisation that everyone I knew literally believed them.

And the more I was told, the more I learned, the less likely it seemed that any of it was true. So there wasn’t a bolt from the blue. The flywheel of belief gradually slowed down until it stopped. Then started spinning the other way.

And I 've heard all tbe arguments for belief. There’s nothing new left. It’s all been absorbed and mulled over and digested. And the result is atheism.

 

[Freddy]

I wouldn’t say I am an Atheist, but I am very disheartened by Catholicism. Even though I often post on this site (usually until I am banned), I rarely practice any longer. I was raised a Catholic, spent 10 years in Catholic school, was a practicing Catholic for decades, and was very active in many Catholic organizations including being on the Board of Directors. My extended family is quite orthodox.

I can trace my issues to the following:

That’s quite a list, Jan. And I can’t see me disagreeing with any of them. Enought topic points there for a couple of years worth of forum discussion…

 

[meltzerboy2]

In your experience, do most who have converted from Judaism to Christianity come from Orthodox Jewish backgrounds?

 

[Pattylt]

The scenario of Christian to atheist to Christian again happens but it is extremely rare, even though christians love to tell the story of those that did this. The usual scenario is someone was religious…usually very religious and active in their faith. Then for whatever reason some doubts creep in. Often they go through a long period of trying to resolve their doubts and sometimes do. They never left, they just had questions.

More often, those little doubts grow into bigger doubts. Research and investigation to resolve the doubts fail and at some point, they realize they are atheist. I know many ex religious. It was a process for all of them. No one wakes up one day just not believing in God. For some it takes a year, for some it takes many years. Often, when someone finally declares their atheism, their friends and family have noticed the trailing off of involvement in church and think they were never True Christians to begin with. Yes, they were…it’s just not a quick easy decision.

Most atheists I know…and I know a lot…are more versed in the Bible and their religions than many others in the pews. During their loss of faith, they study it all. By the time they leave, they usually know why they left…the biggest being they just no longer believe it.

The upcoming generations are the ones that will most likely never been raised in a faith as it’s their parents that have already lost it. Some of these will discover religion on their own. Many will never buy into the Christian concepts of faith and dogmas. We don’t know yet how many who’ve never been exposed to faith will later find it but it’s a much longer road than those who were exposed from infancy losing theirs. Someone raised in the secular world of science and skepticism have an extremely hard time with the concept of a supernatural layer on to of the real world we can see and touch…especially with no actual evidence other than other people’s experiences. If they have a supernatural experience, then they have that as evidence. Most never will.

Those within a religion often can not understand why someone else doesn’t “see” their Christian faith like you see it. All religions have their hard parts to explain much less believe in. The less exposure to Christianity, the less sense it makes to outsiders…just as Hinduism makes so little sense to Christians having never been exposed to more than a little bit of it.

As a Jew who lost her religion long ago and tried desperately to regain my faith, I went through a couple of years trying to understand and believe in Jesus. In the end, I think the biggest reason I failed to believe Jesus was God is my Jewish upbringing. Being told over and over that God can not be a man nor can man be a God, it was just too high a hurdle to jump. To already believe in Jesus, the jump from a Protestant faith to Catholicism is much smaller, much easier.

For all the reasons an atheist becomes one, it’s hard to backtrack and believe it again. That’s why atheism to belief is much more rare than belief to atheism. I’m not denying it happens…it’s just rare.

 

[Freddy]

Always worth reading, Pat.

 

[Pattylt]

Always worth reading, Pat.

Please call me Patty! Pat was my parents friends daughter!

Thank you.

 

[aroosi]

This is just my anecdotal experience. But, as someone who works full time for the Church, and has done so for 15 years; and is involved in local Jewish-Catholic relations, and community ecumenism,

I guess we have a different population sample. I am Catholic but live in an area with a strong Jewish Community and I have met definitely a significant number of people that converted from Christianity to Judaism (interestingly most of them Protestant, only one Catholic) and several atheist/Jewish. I personally never came across somebody that (at least publicly) identified him/herself as a convert to Christianity from Judaism (even if some converts from Judaism are well known in Catholic circles like Saint Edith Stein and in social media more recently Simcha Fisher, Mother Miriam etc). My guess is that people that converted from Christianity to Judaism may be active in the Jewish Community (I met some converts more orthodox than a rabbi!!) but not so interested in ecumenism or Jewish-Catholic relationship.

 

[po18guy]

Free will is the greatest of gifts that God has graced us with. No other creature has it. Do some misuse it?

Yeah…

2 Peter 2:20
For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

 

[catholiclala]

I was raised Baptist, wanted to grow deeper in my faith but the deeper I got, the farther away I drifted from Christianity, I then dabbled in New Age and Eastern religions, then became atheist, and finally converted to Catholicism, who knows if my journey is complete. I still have moments of doubt but come back to my belief because it has been the most transformative and satisfying experience in my spiritual life but it is still, at times, a challenge to reconcile some of my intellectual thought with the mystery of faith. It’s a tension between deeper conversion and utter abandonment, the same thing that started me on this journey.