From atheism to Christianity? How so?

[pineapplebunnybounce]

Sorry I took so long to reply. I went to sleep at 4AM and woke up really, really late. I have been having a lot of things going on and sleeping has not been one of them. I finally got some.

sok I went to sleep around that time too so I know how you feel.

After reading your responses, it strikes me as odd the way you do it as though you did not know how most atheists think about Bible proof. I know my sister so well. I know her like the palm of my hand. If she asked me to explain math, I would not explain it by talking about the problem in hand, but I'd show her visuals. I'm atheist and it does nothing for me when you respond with the Bible. I couldn't care less what Jesus said. I know not all atheists are atheists by having done their research, used logic and reason, etc., but rather never started believing in a god in the first place. I know not all atheists think the same, but I still have not met one atheist that would read a Bible verse and say, "Oh! Now I get it! This explains everything!"

I do understand that atheists will not accept a biblical explanation for much of anything. The thing is, I'm not sure which responses you're referring to. Looking them over, the only responses I've made quoting the bible was in reply to KSA, who made a theological argument to me from the scriptures. In that case I think it was entirely appropiate to use scripture in my response. Could you point out which reply it was in particular?

Anyway, on to the things about your response that really made my brain itch.

1. Supernatural experiences: How were they supernatural? What you explained sounds like an elation, euphoria, inspiration. You went from atheist to Christian because of something supernatural that you experienced, so this must have been very convincing. Something that left a skeptical mind with zero arguments. What was it?

Well, they were experiences that touched my soul and transformed my inner being. They turned something on that was never there before in my experience. Therein lies the problem in that I liken it to describing sight to a blind man. However, I honestly did consider the various arguments that I have seen people mention thus far, that I was having a psychotic break or confirmation bias or what have you. I evaluated all of these experiences with a skeptical eye but their consistency and continuity with reality led me to believe that the weight of evidence was greater that these were real experiences and not something I was just imagining.

2. Why Christ? Chad says that people lean towards the god that is common where they live (or something to the effect, sorry, I might be wrong in what he meant), but this is not enough when you go from atheist to Christian. If you were atheist, you dismissed any god as existent. What made you say, "There is a god and it's this one,"?

I touched on this a bit in my testimony, and believe me, the last thing I'd ever thought I would be was a Christian. The initial revelation of a spiritual reality led me into the new age, and the exploration of the various religions led me, at the last, to read the bible. Because of certain revelation I had received before I read it, I came to the conclusion it was His book. I wasn't absolutely sure about it, but it was enough to get me to give my life to the Lord. When I did that, my life completely changed and my search for who God is was over. Everything that has happened since then has confirmed my experience.

Thank you for taking the time to participate in this discussion.

It's been fun and interesting so far. Thanks for making the thread.

Hey, thanks for sharing, very insightful so far.

I've asked earlier but you might have missed it, so here it is again: mind giving us examples of what you experienced? It would be interesting to see if we would react the same way.

I was once a christian, it was a position of ignorance more than anything really. But I did have a few "experiences" tied to the bible but I shook them off after I understood more about how the brain works and after I see the bible for the fiction that it is. And I have had more "spiritual" experiences (mainly euphoria, feelings of being connected to the universe, time and space, being part of something bigger, that sort of stuff), since. But I have never attributed them to god and I highly doubt any personal experience would even sway my position as intellectually I do not accept those as evidence because truths are not personal but universal.