Atheists Gone Wild

[infidel666]

We've talked a lot about religious indoctrination during childhood.

Does anyone here know of someone who was raised atheist and wound up religious? If so, what was their story? Were they just nuts?

[Edwardo Piet]

I don't personally know of someone....but I heard Alister McGrath used to be Atheist.

I don't know too much about his story....or atleast I can't remember that part right now...

Here's a conversation between Alister and Richard Dawkins http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...1098320091.

I'd say he is atleast a BIT nuts...because I don't understand how he can accept so much science and then still strongly believe in God and Jesus (he's not even a deist)...just because of faith...or sort of ATTEMPT to justify it....

Also I read in TGD that Alister's best argument in his book (I think it was the ''Dawkins' God' one') was that you can't DISPROVE God...lol. Weird. [edit:]And that obviously wasn't even a good argument at all!

Anyway that's the only guy that comes to mind.

P.S: Alister says that 'sometimes Faith goes BEYOND the evidence.'

But he's speaking like that's a good thing! lol.

[Tiberius]

There are plenty of theists who accept Evolution. The Catholic church does officially.

[Edwardo Piet]

Yes. Are there also a lot of theists who accept evolution who also happen to have majors in 'mathematics/chemistry/(molecular biophysics)/physics?' Who used to be atheists but now accepts Christianity?

Apparently Alister has majors in all of those.

I was too vague before... I didn't make myself clear...

This was the paragraph that was basically a falsehood, I probably should've thought it through more:
"Oh and by the way...if I remember correctly I think I heard that Alister believes in evolution but he's religious....
Most religious people I can think of who also believe Evolution are Deists...but Alister's a Theist! I can't think another example of this Combo: Believes in Evolution....but THEIST.
I'm sure there are plenty of people with that combo...but I don't myself know of any famous people of that type."

I'll leave it here so you(Adrian)r response still looks like its responding to my post - as I have noted here as evidence - but then I'll go back and delete this(quoted) paragraph from the original post because its better off without it.

That ok?

[Kyuuketsuki]

I've encountered this before in many forums ... "I used to be an atheist but now I've seen the light or whatever". Reason tells me it is possible for the door to swing both ways; that not only can theists wise-up and realise their beliefs are bunkum but that atheists can find faith but in my experience education and an intelligent outlook lead to reduced faith and not the reverse (on one level I have to believe that, in a sense I put my faith in it). For now this is just my view, mere opinion, but I would very much like some evidence to support this view .. some kind of survey indicating educational level vs. faith perhaps?

To my mind the problem with the idea (mostly implied when theists brandish such claims as some kind of flag in support of their cause) is that virtually all the atheists I know are what I call rational atheists, atheists that support their lack of faith by way of relatively critical analysis of the world, the universe around them and I find it hard (though not impossible) to believe that someone can slide form a rational to an irrational POV based on the claims I have heard from the theists which are, to my mind, ALWAYS irrational.

Another problem is that theists often equate the word atheist to mean someone who is angry at or in some way disillusioned with a particular god ... an example from TV is "Firefly" where you'll find many people like or dislike Mal Reynold's character because he is an atheist however a careful look at the character in context reveals that he is not so much atheist as disillusioned theist who lost his faith in god (but not his belief) at a famous battle in the past. In that sense it seems many of the theist-supposedly-once-atheist types were actually angry at their god or perhaps seeking something that mortal life didn't offer and to my mind that isn't at all what atheism is.

How does one go about supporting this idea ... the answer is, I'm not sure but I think the next time someone claims they were once an atheist or (especially) that someone famous was an atheist I think I'll just say, "OK, show me the proof!" on the basis that I'm no great shakes as a writer and I write a fair bit so one might reasonably expect a famous ex-atheist to have written some seriously barbed diatribes during his or her life when they were supposedly one.

Kyu

[infidel666]

I would very much like ... some kind of survey indicating educational level vs. faith perhaps?

Kyu

http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics...vs_iq.html

Importance of Religion vs IQ