RE: Atheists who become Christians
December 22, 2014 at 1:46 pm
(This post was last modified: December 22, 2014 at 1:56 pm by Mister Agenda.)
(December 21, 2014 at 10:36 am)watchamadoodle Wrote: I was reading some articles about athests who became Christians yesterday. I can't understand how an atheist who has researched the arguments is able to believe in Christianity. I can understand why some athiests might want to believe in Christianity (e.g. falling in love with a Christian, psychological needs, etc.), but I can't understand how they accomplish this feat.
I considered myself an atheist for 20 years, and I fell back into Christianity a few years ago, but I had not bothered to educate myself about why Christianity cannot be true - regardless of voices in our heads, apparent miracles, etc. Now that I have learned about the sausage factory that produced Judaism and Christianity over the past 3000 years, I cannot imagine believing in Christianity ever again.
There is a difference between an atheist accepting that some supernatural power might exist and accepting that this power revealed itself in Judaism and Christianity. I can understand how an atheist can convert to some other religion such as Buddhism, but Christianity...?
Are there intellectually honest arguments that provide a fig leaf for these atheists to convert?
All of the cases I'm familiar with involved a very religious significant other. Although you can't believe whatever you want in the blink of an eye, you can convince yourself to believe whatever you want if you try hard enough for long enough.
(December 21, 2014 at 11:11 am)Drich Wrote: I converted from atheism
Why were you an atheist?
(December 21, 2014 at 11:27 am)watchamadoodle Wrote: I can understand how a person who was indoctrinated into Christianity might know the history and still not be able to give up their beliefs.
I think it's understandable that someone raised a Christian might revert back to it. Especially early into being an atheist. There's often some anxiety about whether they were correct the first year or two. I'd be more surprised if someone went Christian->atheist->Muslim or vice versa. Not too surprised if they went Christian->atheist->new age, pagan, or Buddhist.
I'm not anti-Christian. I'm anti-stupid.