Life going from Atheism to Catholicism

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What led you to belief in God and, eventually, the Church?

Also, in a related question, how do you deal with Atheists who argue against your new found beliefs, even compelling arguments? Have you found ways of getting through to them in any way? Any strong arguments you have come up with?

Pax Cristi <3
 
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I’m here to let you know whether any responses get through to me! 🙂
 
roseproject said:
What led you to belief in God and, eventually, the Church?

Also, in a related question, how do you deal with Atheists who argue against your new found beliefs, even compelling arguments? Have you found ways of getting through to them in any way? Any strong arguments you have come up with?

Pax Cristi <3
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The most compelling argument for me is the evidence for the Resurrection of Christ, combined with that the most compelling explanation for the Resurrection not being true, is a suicide pact between Jesus, Judas, John the Baptist, and all the Apostles including Paul. I think that Christ’s Resurrection being true is more reasonable than thinking they were all involved in a suicide pact.
 
In my experience, a strong argument against atheists is the argument of morality. Atheists concur with Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which entails the ‘survival of the fittest’ principle of natural selection. The strong dominate and kill off the weak. The superior naturally eliminate the inferior, etc. This principle can be readily observed in the animal kingdom, where stronger, faster, more aggressive alpha males get to mate with the females and produce offspring. Weaker, less dominant males do not. A male zebra for example has a harem of females, and sometimes one female goes astray and gets impregnated by another male. Once the offspring is born, the male zebra somehow knows he is not the father and goes ahead and kills the baby zebra. This has been documented by scientists.

If God does not exist and all of us are simply the byproducts of natural selection’s ‘survival of the fittest,’ why shouldn’t the strong among us dominate and kill off the weak? Why shouldn’t we adopt an ‘every man for himself’ attitude and get what we want from whomever we want it by whatever means we can get it? Atheism can offer no meaningful, much less plausible, answer to that question. If only natural, material things exist, then there should be no right or wrong, no morality and no meaning. Ultimately, a true atheistic life should be meaningless.
 
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I’ve never heard the “suicide pact” argument before o_o Ludicrous!

Kind of hard to prove that, seeing as most of the apostles were KILLED FOR their faith in Him…
 
Dan_Defender said:
In my experience, a strong argument against atheists is the argument of morality. Atheists concur with Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which entails the ‘survival of the fittest’ principle of natural selection. The strong dominate and kill off the weak. The superior naturally eliminate the inferior, etc. This principle can be readily observed in the animal kingdom, where stronger, faster, more aggressive alpha males get to mate with the females and produce offspring. Weaker, less dominant males do not. A male zebra for example has a harem of females, and sometimes one female goes astray and gets impregnated by another male. Once the offspring is born, the male zebra somehow knows he is not the father and goes ahead and kills the baby zebra. This has been documented by scientists.
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Well, not all atheists are supporters of Darwin’s theory, and your description of Darwin’s theory is plan wrong. It does not postulate constant conflict between individuals. It holds that beneficial traits leading to more offspring surviving will in the long run become more common in populations. A species can evolve into another and both species can continue to exist. Dogs are descended from wolves.

An atheist, looking at your argument (at least this one) would ask how on earth an argument from morality could be used to say that a system in which baby zebras get kicked to death is a good one.
 
The closest thing I’ve heard to a response an act that causes pain (physical or mental) to others is wrong simply because it causes negative bodily reactions that is detrimental to the person’s well being and therefore, it is common sense that it is wrong… But then I would follow it with why is bodily pain/discomfort automatically labeled an “evil” with this argument or a way to measure the morality of an act?
 
roseproject said:
I’ve never heard the “suicide pact” argument before o_o Ludicrous!
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I agree. That’s why I don’t believe it, and believe in the Resurrection of Christ instead.
roseproject said:
Kind of hard to prove that, seeing as most of the apostles were KILLED FOR their faith in Him…
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Kind of hard to prove Christ’s Resurrection.

The hypothetical suicide pact still holds if the suicides (except for Judas) were all the ancient form of today’s ‘suicide by cop,’ which they all could have been.
 
Former atheist, very new theist here.

Two things that led me to a belief in God:
  1. A completely left field, out of the blue interest in the Eucharist. This eventually developed into a visit to Exposition of The Blessed Sacrament at my local church. I couldn’t deny the Real Presence - which then kind of opens up the rest of the church/religion thing.
  2. After the above happened - listening to a Word on Fire Podcast where Bishop Barron presents arguments for the existence of God. It’s the first time I had heard any logical arguments that had made any sense to me.
As for arguing with atheists to convince them they are wrong; I don’t. I’m nowhere near far enough along this path to be able to formulate any coherent arguments. I also think that the person you are speaking to has to be receptive to your reasoning in the first place. In other words the first steps away from atheism and toward faith or belief are graces given to us by God.
 
You are entitled to your opinion and I am to mine. A true atheistic path leads to no justification for morality, and this was shown by philosopher Nietzsche, whom I consider more representative of atheism than you.
 
I don’t see atheists as wrong, but rather as not being fully right. Most have some sense of goodness, which we know comes from God. So they’re right on a lot of important things like applying their sense of good to their decisions and actions. They simply don’t yet see that this sense of good is a gift from God and His way of speaking to their souls while still leaving it up to them to choose whether they want to know Him better.
 
I find it highly improbable that practicing Jews from ancient Israel who were waiting for the true Messiah amidst being oppressed by the Roman authorities of the time (many thought that the messiah would deliver them from said Romans)… would agree to let these forces kill them to… … prove Jesus was this Messiah?? Makes no sense to me.
 
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