So after many years of being atheist I now believe in GOD. Well not really, I just wanted to get your attention and pose the question, why do Atheists convert to christianity? I have seen it a few times where a long time atheist will 'convert' back to christianity.

Would anything ever make you convert back?

(April 30, 2014 at 12:05 pm)BlackSwordsman Wrote: Would anything ever make you convert back?

I'd need a full body shot of the goddess before moving any further. Face pics only go so far.

Why would an atheist convert to Christianity?
I cannot think of one logical reason, which states more of the person's mental state at the time. There is nothing rational about religious belief, after all.

Would I ever convert back to Christianity?
Not even if the religion's tyrannical god was somehow proven to exist.

Probably emotional reasons. Religion is a crutch.

I would like to know if an intelligent, scientifically literate person, who has read lots of atheist literature, knows all the anti-theism arguments, etc. converted back, and why they did...

There may be some conceivable way of convincing me that a deist god exists. But Christianity? Not a chance.

I've seen a person struggle with this only when they are at their lowest and feel they can't go on and want to believe they are not alone. It is a crutch as much as alcohol is. It happens a lot in prison.the person I knew wanted to believe he was being punished, and life would get better if he repented for the things he had done. I told him sometimes bad things just happen to good people or good people sometimes make terrible choices, but it doesn't really always help a person in an all time low.

The idea of heaven is nice, personally I like it more than the idea of nothing.
But still, if I look at stuff logically heaven just does not make sense.

So, I think people need something to hold on to, otherwise they are probably fearful all the time.
Maybe even hell is for some better than nothing.

And of course there is pressure from the environment. Or maybe they want to be part of a community like that.

If people are pressured into saying something, they will actually believe it to avoid cognitive dissonance. It's called forced compliance theory. in the Festinger and Carlsmith experiment, after doing a really tedious and boring task, subjects were payed either $1 or $20 to tell someone else that the task would be fun. Those who were payed only $1 settled their cognitive dissonance by telling themself that the task really was fun.

(April 30, 2014 at 12:05 pm)BlackSwordsman Wrote: Would anything ever make you convert back?

Severe head trauma.

I never converted in the first place, so I can't convert "back."

It's hard to say what would cause someone to convert or reconvert. There are probably many reasons.

Not all atheists disbelieve in gods for rational reasons. If someone disbelieves for bad reasons, and runs across a particularly convincing (to them) debater, they might be swayed.

I've seem the Cosmological argument (despite the obvious fallacies) sway atheists to becoming deists or theists.