(January 29, 2016 at 11:22 am)Catholic_Lady Wrote:(January 29, 2016 at 11:14 am)Old Baby Wrote: Every atheist I've ever really known can be put into one of two categories.
1. Person who does not believe for rational reasons.
2. Person who does not believe for emotional reasons.
The first part of this NDE testimony describes an individual who fits into category #2.
People who are driven by their emotions really all go in the same category, whether they wear the label of theist, atheist, anti-theist, etc. Their methodology for determining what is most probable is not based on evidence or rational thought, but on emotion and subjective experience. That's why I don't find the testimony of Christians who were saved from atheism very compelling, and ultimately why I'm not persuaded by Howard Storm's experience.
How do you know he was led by emotions? It doesn't say anything about any sort of bad experience he has with religion that made him this way. He just sounds like a very skeptical person.
"...was not a very pleasant man by his own admission. He was an avowed atheist and very hostile to every form of religion and those who practiced it. He would often use rage to control everyone around him and he didn't find joy in anything..."
That's not the description of a regular joe who just concludes that there's no rational reason to believe in God. This describes someone who was hostile to the very notion of a supernatural deity and toward everyone who disagreed with him. This is often how Christians who convert from "atheism" describe themselves. He sounds more like a person who was either afraid/in denial or someone who hated religion because of something from their past.