RE: Former atheist
February 26, 2015 at 7:17 pm
(This post was last modified: February 26, 2015 at 7:18 pm by Simon Moon.)
People come to their beliefs or lack of beliefs for good reasons, and bad reasons.
I would not doubt that these former atheists were actually atheists (I don't want to be guilty of 'No True Scotsman'), but that doesn't mean they were atheists for good reasons (the end results of critical thinking and skepticism when correctly applied to the god claim).
They could have been atheists because they were brought up without indoctrination in any religion, but never examined the issue critically. They might be dazzled by a William Lane Craig or Josh McDowell's BS and fall for it.
They might have had some experience that they were unable to explain, some theist comes along and offers them a supernatural 'explanation' and they are hooked.
There are many reasons they become theists, all of them fallacious.
I would not doubt that these former atheists were actually atheists (I don't want to be guilty of 'No True Scotsman'), but that doesn't mean they were atheists for good reasons (the end results of critical thinking and skepticism when correctly applied to the god claim).
They could have been atheists because they were brought up without indoctrination in any religion, but never examined the issue critically. They might be dazzled by a William Lane Craig or Josh McDowell's BS and fall for it.
They might have had some experience that they were unable to explain, some theist comes along and offers them a supernatural 'explanation' and they are hooked.
There are many reasons they become theists, all of them fallacious.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
