What do you think of this conversion from Atheism

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Around 15:00 she mentions that her now-husband in talking about his full body baptism encountered something that caused him to remain a theist. I would never deny that he truly experienced Jesus, but as an outsider I would also point out that there are those of a decidedly non-Christian faith who also feel they have encountered something beyond the physical.

Around 19:00 she says she looked at her newborn son and tried to assess what he was. She used the phrase “isn’t he a precious little randomly evolved set of chemical reactions that is destined to extinction along with the rest of humanity?” Like I saidm there are great many different atheists out there, but I know of none who actually talk like that. You know who talks like that? Atheists in those PureFlix movies. This interview is getting embarrassing.

Around 19:30 she said that she knew at that time that the love she had for he son came from something extrnal to humanity. I would strongly disagree with that, but I certainly wouldn’t fault her for having that opinion.

Around 21:00 she said she was an athiest that didn’t believe in anything but later love as an extrnal are real thing is something she wanted to believe in. After that she said that she remember being surrounded by Christians and that she at the time felt they were that way because they couldn’t face the real world, but then after her epiphany with love that she was becoming one of them. Again, I don’t fault her for taking her religious position, but it seems like a false dichotomy: That you can only experience love if you believe it comes from a higher power, and that if you don’t believe in a higher power love isn’t real.

Around 25:00 she talks about reading some writings and talking about the changes that occurred in 1st century Palestine and how the simplest explanation was that the Bible was true. While she and others find it convincing – and it is something to consider, non-believers like myself would point out how just because something grabs hold of a culture doesn’t mean that something is true. The simplest rule when considering any apologetic is to determine if there is a parallel in another faith.

I stopped at 32:00 since at that point it was about why Catholicism over other Christian denominations. She said that she handpicked a group of Christians from her blog that could (allegedly) demolish all atheist arguments and was surprised to find they were all Catholic.

So as far as “what do you think of this conversion from Atheism?” She had a major experience (the birth of her son) which made her assess her place in the universe. From there she chose Catholicism based on the knowledge of its participants. I’ve always said that reasonable people can see the same evidence (especially on something unprovable/unfalsifiable like religion) and come to different conclusion. If she decides that atheist is wanting, so be it. I just wish she told her tell with a bit less false witness as to the whole of atheism.
 
I’m quite intrigued. Do you hold many opinions that require no actual will to believe or maintain?
Sure. It would be a weird life in which every opinion we held was perforce subject to a continuous exercise of will, a continuous battle between maintenance and rejection. Certainly we should be open to argument, and when circumstances suggest that reconsideration would be sensible, we should reconsider. That’s the extent of it,

Certainly I do not wilfully pursue “a singular goal to remain in a darkness of sorts” or wilfully seek “to avoid […] deeper meaning” or wilfully keep my eyes “closed to […] exploration of deeper meaning”.

You are mistaken. Your characterisation of atheists is mistaken. All these atheists, in their millions, all wilfully pursuing darkness? Of course not. They just happen to have come to a different conclusion than you have on a subject which has been a matter of debate for centuries.
 
Hi Mike
I lived in Florence NJ for a while back in 2000…
Anyway Thanks for your Honest appraisal of the video and your feedback was what I was looking for.
If you want my rebuttal to your answer I would be happy to give it as I see a few points we can agree on but I see a few points that we could not.
thanks
 
I see your embroiled in a discussion already and don’t want to add to that.
just to say this woman has given her reasons based on her understanding, it is not objective truth and no group has a monopoly on Love and it’s not right to say Atheism only offers despair, yet she has failed to relay the fact that her conversion was not an intellectual one based on a number of findings and deep thought on the matter, the fact is no one comes to the faith unless directed to by the Holy Spirit and her journey was only promptings from Him.
That’s why I ask do you understand the flesh and spirit are different and will awaken experiences that will not be seen by Atheists who refuse the promptings to leave the flesh and live in the Spirit.
knowing what the spirit is not confuses me?
 
Indeed. You seem quite settled in your opinions. So, I believe you when you say you are no longer exercising your will or intellect in the matter. But you might consider that willfully engaging the search for truth is vital to living and growing as a person. Such struggle of the will towards truth drives us to learn more and to connect to one another. It beckons us beyond the realm of the mind and mere personal opinion. For in that struggle is found the implicit recognition not only of self but self in others and in communion with others. It is a journey to the splendor of the truth of what it means to be human.

Yet, there is an empty path which some choose. It is a journey each must take alone and in isolation. It is a journey away from others. It is a journey into the darkness of skepticism, of unbelief, not by struggling to find truth, but by embracing its absence. For these pilgrims into darkness, no light of truth may penetrate their unbelief. In it’s shadows, no glimmer of certitude can seen. No rays of hope may be found. No splendor of the divine can be sensed. For that light is clouded by one persistent belief held with absolute tenacity, “There is no evidence! I will not believe!”
 
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My unbelief is settled insofaras it has lasted nearly 60 of my more than 70 years, but that does not mean that my intellect is not alive or that I do not pursue the truth: indeed that is not the case. I pursue knowledge, avidly, and I do not do so alone, or without love, or embracing darkness, but happily, in delight at those things which are delightful, and in hope.

Your second paragraph conjures an unhappy picture. It seems that not only your search for truth but also your imagination is wilful.
 
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What will the faithless say?
When the final twilight fades?
From East to West
When mindless nature has coldly bade,
All creation to ever rest
From toils of life
From toils of death
From toils of strife
From toils of breath
While they, like birds, go to nest
In the shadows of that night
In their longed for silent rest
Untouched by any light
In secret place
With dark so deep
Where there is no discerning
Waking from sleep
In that kingdom of dreams
Where time drifts away
Where moments and millennia
Are the same
As one day
Beneath dead stars
Yielding the last of ancient light
Dimming out in the depths
Of cosmic eternal night
Finally overcome
By an ocean of emptiness
So abysmal that all time
Becomes meaningless
Then, will their struggles cease?
Then, will they be at final peace?
To behold that empty sight,
To know at last that they were right,
To have found the evidence,
That eternal nothingness,
Is their final recompense?
 
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