As the thread title implies, this thread will be solely to review testimonies of people who regard themselves as ex-atheists, who have now changed their minds into believing something else other than their atheistic beliefs.

'its gonna be served in a diluted or undiluted state' from various sources.

lets start with this

Lee Strobel , a former atheist, holds a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale Law School, was an investigative newspaper reporter, and was the award-winning legal editor of the Chicago Tribune. Currently, he is a teaching pastor at Saddleback Valley Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif. , and a board member of the Willow Creek Association.

An all-around religious skeptic born in 1952 (notions of God represent wishful thinking), his wife stunned him in the autumn of 1979 with the announcement that she had become a Christian. "I rolled my eyes and braced for the worst, feeling like the victim of a bait-and -switch scam. I had married one Leslie, .the fun Leslie, the carefree Leslie, the risk-taking Leslie, .and now I feared she was going to turn into some sort of sexually repressed prude who would trade our upwardly mobile lifestyle for all-night prayer vigils and volunteer work in grimy soup kitchens."

At age 28 and after almost two years of intense investigation Jesus, he converted on 8 Nov. 1981. He published The Case For Christ in 1998 and The Case For Faith in 2000. I' ve read both and think that each of these less-than-300 pages books has excellent information for those who think they will not find intelligent evidence in favor of faith and Jesus.

From the Gegrapha web site (Christian journalists) write-up: The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel (apparently an interview) I was an atheist for most of my life . I thought that the idea of an all powerful, all loving God was just silly. I learned in school that evolution was where life came from, so what do you need God for? And I had a lot of self-motivation for living an atheistic lifestyle. I was living a very immoral life and a drunken life, life that was really a hundred percent focused on journalism.

I remember I 've loved newspapers since I was a little kid. My dad used to bring home the Chicago Daily News every night from work, and I would read it as a little kid and say how is there all this news every day and how does it always happen to just perfectly fit? I couldn't figure this out. I wanted to be a journalist, so I started a newspaper when I was 12 years old ; and it became quite successful. We had 200 subscribers, and we charged 20 cents a month. It was five pages a week. I printed it in my basement on a little printing press. I had advertising, three dollars a page, that I would sell. I made a profit; I did it for two years, and I really enjoyed it. Then I lied about my age and got a job at a newspaper as a summer intern. And I spent five years as a summer intern, starting at age fourteen; so I had a lot of experience for a young kid.

I went to the University of Missouri because everyone told me that's the first journalism school in the country and many say the best. So I went there, and then I applied for a job at the Arizona Republic. I loved Arizona, and I went down there. I' ll never forget that the editor said "We really like reporters who are really committed to the newspaper and to the profession. We want people that for them: God is number one, family number two, and then their job. " I thought, "Is he nuts?" My job is number one, my wife number two, and everything else is after that. It honestly did not compute with me because I was absolutely focused on my career as a journalist.

Right from journalism school I went to the Chicago Tribune, which was unusual; but I had so much experience for a kid. , because I knew since I was a little kid what I wanted to do. So I started as a general-assignments reporter. I went to Yale to get my masters in law, came back as a legal editor, covered federal courts, covered criminal courts, covered the Illinois Supreme Court and really enjoyed it but without God, without a moral framework, my personal life was out of control, the drinking, the carousing. I had no moral framework of how to do journalism so I would do whatever it took to get the story. I would steal; I would commit a federal crime by stealing federal documents from the courthouse. I made friends with the court clerk, and he allowed me to go by myself into the court files; and so I would go in there, and I would beat the competition all the time by finding all this wonderful stuff in the court files that no one knew about. So when I would find something particularly juicy, I would slip it under my vest, and I would steal it so when the story broke, the competition couldn' t find the documents. Then I gave it a day or two, then I put it back. I figured it was worth it because I never got caught.

I would lie. I remember covering stories at the police headquarters, I would call the witness to a crime and I would say, "Hello this is Lee Strobel calling from police headquarters." Well the implication was that I was with the police department. I intentionally mislead and deceived them, because I figured they would tell me more than if they knew I was a reporter. There was nothing that I wouldn't do in pursuit of a story. I would step on my colleagues, in a very Machiavellian way. I, behind the scenes, destroyed the career of one of my colleagues because he was in my way. By the time I was done with him , he was fired from the Chicago Tribune .

That' s a terrible thing to do, to destroy someone's career; but I did it. And I didn't care. It didn' t bother me one iota, because he was in my way. Get rid of him, destroy him. , and I was able to do it. He got called on his honeymoon to be informed that he had been fired from his job. , a terrible thing. But, as I said, I had no moral sense of right or wrong. If something was in my way, I got rid of it.

A woman friend of mine in college came up to me one day and said, "I have bad news I 'm pregnant. " I said, "That' s not bad news; abortion 's legal in New York. Why don' t you get rid of it? I' ll help you; I' ll arrange it for you. " So I arranged for the destruction of that unborn child. It didn' t bother me at all. Something was in the way, .I was getting rid of it. That was my atheistic mindset: completely focused on achieving my goal of success at the Chicago Tribune. My wife was agnostic. She had virtually no experience with church growing up. She never really thought much about God. Then, one day we moved into an apartment building; and the woman downstairs was a Christian. And she built a friendship with my wife, and they became best friends. And they would talk and spend time together. It was very natural in their conversations for Linda to share her faith with my wife, Leslie; and Leslie was fascinated. No one had ever told me about Christianity before. Not really. Here we are in our late twenties at the time. She just soaked it up. So Linda said a very interesting thing to herself. She said, "Okay, I 'm stuck here. I' ve shared my faith with Leslie who I can' t get to cross the line of faith. I don' t know what to do, but I know instinctually what not to do: I should not bring Leslie to church (because Linda had a very traditional church, and she knew that if she brought Leslie to her church it would be so disorienting, .Leslie wouldn' t know when to sit, when to stand or when to open a Bible. She wouldn't have a Bible, she wouldn't know an Ephesians from a Philippians, and she would feel like a fish out of water. The sermon would be directed at Christians (as opposed to non believers) ." So Linda said, "I can' t bring her to that church, but I heard about a new church called Willow Creek. It was meeting in a movie theater right near our house. And Willow Creek had a traditional worship service on Wednesday nights; but on weekends they did service designed for Christians to bring their non -believing friends to, .where things were explained in a way that non-Christians could understand it. , where people weren't put on the spot and made to do things they weren't ready to, .where the sermon would be very practical and application-oriented and designed in articulated language that non- believers could understand. , where the music would not be from the eighteen hundreds, but music that people could really get in to." So Linda brought my wife to that church, and my wife loved it. I remember she came home that day and said, "This is a great church!" And I said, "This is an oxymoron: you can't have great and church in the same sentence. Its like military intelligence: they don' t go together!" But, anyway, I said, "If you want to continue this, go ahead; but don' t try to get me to go

continued

And so she came to me in the fall of 1973 and said, "Lee, I 've made a big decision. I' ve become a follower of Jesus Christ." I thought this was the worst possible thing that could happen to our marriage. I thought we were gonna get divorced. I felt like I' d married one Leslie and now she's changed into something else. I wasn' t ready for that. I didn' t want that. And I said, "Look, if you can't face life on your own two feet, if you have to out your faith in a book of mythology and bad history and make-believe, then you go ahead and do that. But, number one , don' t give them any of our money, because that's what they' re after; and, number two, don' t try to get me to go because I' m too smart for that."

So I was a really nice guy, but she continued to go and to invite me from time to time; and I wouldn't go, and it was a very stressful time in our marriage. In fact , we are writing a book about it, a how-to-live -with-a-non -believer kind of book; because it was very stressful. We almost did get divorced, but there was something very attractive at the same time in her life and the changes in her, in her character, and in her values, and in the way she related to me and the children: it just intrigued me. So then finally on January 20, 1980 she said, "Why don' t you come with me to church?" She said, "You don' t have to stay for the whole service, just come and listen to the music, .you 'll like the music." I said, "Ok. I' m gonna go." So I come into this church, and the music really was in my style. I could enjoy it. I could relate to it. I learned from the lyrics. They used a drama that really captured a slice of my life, like they know what I was thinking. And then the pastor got up and did the message called "Basic Christianity" and just explained Christianity. I was twenty-eight years old. I had never heard the word grace explained before in my life . I thought grace was something Christians said before a meal. He explained it. I thought that, number one: I don' t believe it, I' m still an atheist; but, number two: if this is true, this has huge implications for my life.

So I decided to take my legal training and my journalism training and investigate: is there any credibility to Christianity? I would do what I did at the Chicago Tribune. I would check out stories to see if they were true, if they could be printed in the papers. So I would investigate. I went out, and I applied those skills to the question of, " Who is Jesus Christ?" I didn' t do it with an antagonist attitude; I did it with a journalist's attitude. , I said, "Give me the facts. I 'm going to look at both sides, I' m going to look at other world religions." And I began to do that. And it was an amazing journey: to look at other faith systems and see the eternal contradictions that, to me, disqualified them from being true. And yet to see in Christianity, as I looked into the historical evidence for Jesus, as I looked at the reliability of the New Testament, as I looked at the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies in the New Testament, as I looked at the resurrection: very powerful evidence. And I looked at some of the most brilliant legal minds of history: Simon Greenleaf of Harvard, Sir Lionel Luck, who, the Guinness Book of World Records describes as the most successful lawyer in the history of the world (had more murder trials won in a row than any other defense attorney ever) . These are brilliant people who have applied the laws of evidence to the resurrection accounts and walked away convinced that they are true.

My big hang-up was that it was legend. , that this was a legend that grew up a long time after Jesus, .and then I found a very interesting fact that to me was one of the pivotal facts in my investigation. There is a passage in scripture, 1 Corinthians 15:3 , that is a creed recited by the earliest Christians that Paul is providing there for the Corinthians; and in fact he refers to the fact that he already has provided this, "This what I received, I pass on to you. " In other words he says this is tradition that I am now formally passing on to you, and it affirms the essentials of Christianity. That Jesus died for our sins. That he was buried and resurrected on the third day and he mentions the eyewitnesses to whom he appears.

It mentions skeptics like James and Paul. This Creed can be dated back by scholars from a wide range of theological belief to within 2 years to sixty months after the resurrection itself. This is an extremely early account that Paul is preserving for us. Its not his words. , he's passing this along. And when you look at Sherwin White, the great classical historian from Oxford- Cambridge (he did studies about the rate at which legends grew up in the ancient world, and he found that two generations of time was not enough for legend to grow up and thoroughly destroy a solid core of historical truth). And yet here you have something not two generations of time. , but that goes back to within two to five years of the events themselves. And the statements in that creed (which were affirmed that it was given by Paul by the witnesses themselves, Peter and James), goes back to the cross itself, to the eyewitness accounts. So there has never been a legend in so short time. In 1844 a historian said, "I challenge anyone anywhere to come up with any example in history where legend grew up that fast and thoroughly destroyed or distorted solid, historical belief, .it has never happened that anyone has been able to find. " That was very powerful to me. It told me that this wasn' t wishful thinking, it wasn' t legendary development. This was something that we had a creed of the early church that goes right back to the events themselves, virtually; and , therefore, was very fresh and trustworthy in terms of what it conveys, .and when you look at the other aspects of the empty tomb, the eyewitness accounts, the early nature, the extra-biblical evidence, the emergence of the early church. , I call them the five Es, .you look at all that together; and that's a very powerful case for the resurrection.

So I did this investigation for almost 2 years of my life: looking at evidence inside the Bible, outside the Bible. One of my favorite things: I found 110 facts outside the Bible recorded in ancient history that confirmed ( and again these are many things some are higher quality than others, most are somewhat questionable) that form together a very powerful corroborative aspect. One of them, my favorite , is a guy named Thalus, who was a Greek historian in the first century, who wrote a history of the Eastern Mediterranean world in 52AD . So this is right after Jesus' life. Thalus was not a believer and Thalus' works have actually been lost; but in the year 221, a guy named Julius Africanus quotes Thalus, and Thalus had written about the darkness that fell over the Earth during the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Now when I had seen that Bible verse, I remember thinking, "Don' t you think someone other than Mathew, Mark, Luke or John would have noticed this. " And Thalus not only recorded it, but he tried to explain it away as being an eclipse of the sun. Which, given the timing of the Crucifixion, it could not have been. And I thought Thalus' was a weak historical claim; but the more you investigate Thalus you find that's a very powerful bit of corroborative evidence and it' s not the only bit. There' s other references to the darkness outside the Bible. I just had a great time as a journalist investigating all this stuff. On the plus side, journalists respond to evidence; the negative side is I tended to be an observer, I was never a participant , I was the critical observer. I didn't join anything; I kept things at arms length. So the idea of making a commitment to God was alien to me; and yet the evidence was so powerful that on November 8, 1981 (after spending two years of checking this out) I just realized that in light of this torrent of evidence that points so powerfully towards Christianity, it would have required more faith to retain my atheism than to become a Christian. Because to maintain my atheism I would have had to defy the evidence. To become a Christian, I just had to make a step of faith in the same direction that the evidence was pointing. That' s logical, that's rational, and that's what I did.

On that day I repented of my sin, which took quite a while, and gave my life to Christ. I thought maybe my wife would be interested in the fact that I just did this; so I thought I' d tell her. So I came out and was walking down the hallway and turned into our kitchen, and my wife was standing there with our daughter who was almost five; and our daughter was standing in front of her reaching up and touching the faucet, for the first time. , that 's how tall she was. And she said, "Daddy, look I can touch it. I can reach it. " And I said, "Oh wow you're getting so big. " And I gave her a hug , and she ran off; and I said to my wife, "That' s how I feel! I feel for a year and nine months I' ve been reaching out and reaching out, and I just touched Jesus Christ. It' s real and it's true, and I just gave my life to him. " She started crying and said, "You hardhearted son-of - a-*&# , I' ve been telling you this for two years." And it had turned out that she had met some women in her church, and she told them about her husband who is a hard-hearted, hard-headed journalist that she didn' t have much hope for, and they said we' ll pray this verse Ezekiel 33:23 [the correct citation is 36: 26]. It says more over, "I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you. I 'll remove your heart of stone, and I will give you a heart of flesh." And she said, "I' ve been praying that every day for two years." And God began to answer that prayer as I opened my life to him and yielded myself to him, began to seek to follow his ways; and, now, empowered by the Holy Spirit, my attitudes, my philosophy, my worldview, my professional standards, my marriage, my job. , everything began to change so much so that my little daughter Alison had only known in her first five years a dad that was angry. I remember. , so frustrated from work one day and I kicked the wall and I put my foot right through the wall, anger over life and frustration. , that's all she knew of her dad . I' d come home drunk or I would come home angry and that's all she had known. And then five or six months after I became a Christian, having seen how God changed my attitudes and my life , she came up to my wife and said, "Mommy, I want God to do for me what he did for daddy. " She gave her life to Christ at age five and now has graduated from college and is now in the ministry, trying to reach this next generation; and my son is now going to seminary, he graduated from bible college this year and is going to seminary here in California in the fall to study philosophy and religion.

My whole life has changed: my attitude, my family, all of our eternities, part of it is because of a church that took some risks to communicate the gospel in a simple way, in a way that didn't inadvertently chase away the very people that God was calling them to reach. And then, within thirty days of becoming a Christian, Leslie came to me one day and said, "Man I found this verse It says pray for your heart' s desire." I said, "Oh man I know what my heart' s desire is. Its not to be legal editor of the Chicago Tribune. I want to run my own paper; I want to be managing editor. I want to run a newspaper, because I want to make a bigger contribution than just being one cog in a big newspaper." She said, "You think that we ought to pray about this?" And I said, "Why not." So, we began to pray about this. Boom! Within thirty days God opened an opportunity for me to become editor of a newspaper that the Washington Post actually said is one of the finest small papers in America: the Columbia Daily Tribune in Columbia, Missouri, .which is where the university of Missouri Journalism School is. And I came down and became editor. It was a real test! at that point I am a brand new Christian and didn't know virtually anything about the Christian life. I knew a lot about the history of Jesus. So I said to my self that, if I want to run this newspaper, I want to be like Jesus. I want to do it the way Jesus would do it. Now what would that look like? So we went down there. It was a little experiment for a new Christian. I had 44 people in my newsroom; and I came in. Everyone thought, because I came form the Chicago Tribune, I would be a big shot and throw my weight around. They were taken aback because I came in with a servant' s attitude. That was one of the things Leslie and I had stressed together: let's be servants, let' s do what Jesus would do, let's serve these people, try to maximize their gifts, try to respect them as people. We will not even get near any moral ambiguity in terms of the way that we do Journalism; we will identify ourselves as reporters; we will always stay on the ethical line of everything. I remember the big question in my mind - I had won some big awards in Chicago for investigative reporting and for community service journalism. I wondered, "Could I be successful as a journalist and be strictly adhering to ethical standards?" We said, "We are gonna find out. " And I stressed to everybody- we had many times when we could have skated over the line and really scored on something and said, "No, we are not gonna do it, .there is another way, .there 's got to be a better way, .there 's got to be an honest way." And, two years later the paper was named by the Missouri press association as the best paper in the state of Missouri, beating St. Lois and Kansas City papers. It can be done, .we did it. , we stayed on the right side and did the right thing. God blessed it, and I think we had a terrific newspaper.

Although I missed Chicago, .not for the Chicago tribune but for Willow Creek church. , I thought all churches were like that. I thought that it was a typical church. We want to Missouri, and it wasn' t quite like that. We moved back to Chicago mainly to attend Willow Creek church, and I became assistant managing editor of the Daily Herald which is the third biggest paper in Illinois; and God began to call me into ministry.

That was a big struggle for me, because I believed very strongly in secular journalism. Christian journalists in secular journalism: I wanted to stay that way, and I wanted to be a voice & I wanted to be salt and light in that environment. But it was unmistakable; it took two years of God tugging and making it clear. But, in the end, I knew it was either obedience or not. I knew that, for me, what God wanted me to do would be for me to go into full-time Christian work especially in the area of evangelism. I remember that, at the time, I had never shared my faith before. I wasn' t an evangelist; I was just a new Christian. I was scared to share my faith; I didn't know what to say or what to do.

I remember one day at the Daily Herald. , it was one of those days when everything goes wrong, .all the deadlines are blown, and I prayed in the morning, and I said, " God, I need your help on this, because I 'm going to go ballistic on this. I really need your help!" And God really came through, and I really got through the day.

When I was a supervisor, I didn't want my reporters to think, "Well, for me to get ahead, I' d better say that I' m a Christian otherwise Lee' s not going to promote me." They'd think I played favorites or something, so there are just a couple of things that I found personally helpful. The first thing is to be myself. , not to say I' m going to share my faith the way that somebody else might. I' m going to be myself.

If you look in the Bible there are about six different examples of different styles in which people shared their faith. You have Peter who gets up at Pentecost and talks to the crowd and, BOOM, hits them between the eyes and says, "You just killed the Messiah!" God used it, and three thousand people repented, and the church was born. Peter' s was a very confrontational thing, and I used to think, "If I' m going to be an evangelist, doggon it, I' d better be that kind: in your face. " But no, there are other styles. Paul, in Acts 17, talking to philosophers: he didn't hit them between the eyes. Instead, he reasoned with them. He answered their questions and presented the evidence. He had a dialogue with them. , a different kind of a style, more of an intellectual style.

If you look at the blind man in John 9: Jesus heals a blind man. The blind man doesn' t confront the religious leaders. He doesn' t reason with the religious leaders. He just says, "I was blind and now I see. " Deal with it. You figure it out.

So there is another style of evangelizing. , the testimonial style: this is my story. It' s the style I usually use .Others , like Matthew: after Matthew became a disciple, there is a fascinating mention. He threw a party for his tax-collecting friends and invited Jesus and the other disciples so they could rub shoulders and spiritual sparks would happen. , so its more of an interpersonal style more of a relational style of evangelism.

There is the story of the woman who was making clothes for the poor people of her town. She was serving people in need, and then she dies and of course she is raised from the dead. So there is an advantage to having that particular style. Hers was a serving style. She would serve people and thought that she would communicate her faith that way. So there is about a half of a dozen different types of styles that you can see in the New Testament. We don' t have to do it in the same way. You can be "you" and be effective in sharing your faith. I don 't have to stand up on my chair in a newsroom and shout the gospel, but I have a testimonial style; and there are opportunities that I' ve had with journalists to be able to tell my story and answer their questions.

I think the first thing is to be yourself, and the second thing is to drop hints early that you are a Christian. Just let it be known in a subtle way. For instance, you ask somebody, "What did you do this weekend?" And they said, "Well, I washed the car; I went out to dinner with my wife; and I went to a movie. What did you do, Lee?" "Oh well, I washed my car too; and I watched that game on TV. Wasn' t that a great game? And I went to church, and I did such and such." All I have to do is just drop the hint. , just let him know. , that's initially all I' ve got to do. So be yourself. Drop hints early. Then, third, hangout, .spend time with the non-believers . It' s uncomfortable ; I got real uncomfortable hanging out in bars after I stopped drinking. Right after I became a Christian, I stopped drinking; and, so, I didn' t like to go back into bars. It was a bad place for me, but God protected me. I' ve never fallen back. I' ve gone in places where I' ve been uncomfortable. , to hang out, .to spend time with my friends in journalism who are non- believers.

And what I find is they know that I' m a Christian, and I just spend time with them and love them and care for them. At some point, a spiritual conversation is going to come up. You can almost guarantee that.

. The fourth thing to do is to pray. Chances are a spiritual conversation is going to take place after work, down the block, or over lunch . I continue to reach out to a lot of journalists who I know at the Tribune and elsewhere who are not believers. They know I 'm a Christian, and you know what they are looking for: someone to talk to a lot. They have questions about faith. If something comes up in their life, who are they going to go to? Who is the person in the newsroom who doesn' t know any Christians when catastrophe strikes in their life and their wife gets cancer or their kid gets hit by a car? Who are they going to go to? They are going to go to you, because they know that Strobel goes to church. "I 'm going to go to him and ask him for help. ,  or something. " Personally, I find that's been helpful. I was in downtown Chicago, and I ran into a guy who was a competitor of mine when I was at the Tribune; and I hadn' t seen him in twenty years. He' s one of these really tough Chicago reporters with the cigar and pork pie hat. He' s the archetype Chicago reporter . He said, "Strobel, how the #*# @ are you, you son-of-a # *#@ ?" I said, "I' m doing good, John." He said, "Are you still writing for that #* #@ Tribune?. " I said, "No, John. Actually, I' ve become a Christian; and I' m a minister now." His cigar almost fell out of his mouth. He looks at me and says, "Well, I 'll be damned!" I shared my faith with him, and it was really great. He was really interested. I call it "the unexpected adventure". If you are yourself, and if you drop hints, and if you are praying for people, and if you' re hanging out with them, then something's going to happen. You never know when or where, and I think that's the great unexpected adventure of Christianity!

www.theeffectivetruth.info/testls.html

I wonder what toba hopes to gain from this. he and fellow christians av always found somthing wrong with Muslims talking of reverts to Islam. I hope he gets the same treatment on this thread.

his unwarranted responses -

toba:

What does this thread aim to achieve?

toba:

Man, i think u have a change troubling your soul. Which side of the divide do u belong to? Atheists have identity. As for u, i completely doubt your knowing your true personalty when it comes to belief&religious matter.
Try a rediscovery process.

toba:

I am a die hard bayern Munich fan since 1993 Franck Ribery got a Red card in the UCL semifinal for a bad tackle. I can imagine which religion taught him such wickedness.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-443892.0.html

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-538690.0.html

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-4069.0.html

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-658916.0.html

Warning !!!


Do not derail this thread , this is not an ISLAMIC article.

Pure garbage.
Once an atheist and now a christian, So what? And the point of this is?
What about former christians who are now athiest?

Your personal opinions are more valuable in this forum than clippings from websites. On the internet, I could find a website to support and justify any position that I hold. So ,attaching clippings from a website to support your views or theories is not very smart, in my opinion.

As a christian and pastor, I think if you preach on this thread or forum, the gospel of love , tolerance, honesty and charity(by the way, what charities are you involved with?), all of us ,irrespective of our labels or isms,could find common ground to share our ideals, experiences and goals. Should that not be the christian ideal?
Or, is your obsession with athiesm rooted in the fear that athiesm is bad for the church business?
Since you are quite a reasonable fellow, I , for one, would  love to know whether your fixation with athiesm is just an academic exercise, or is rooted in some kind of personal fear.
Thank you.

Again and again we have to prove to these atheists, that they believe in an illusion , they have no real hold on to any piece of truth.

Their ideology is based on assumptions and presumptions. No fact. Just theories and guess work.

What intelligent man will anchor his entire existence onto the shaky pillars of unproven hypotheses 

whats the difference between Atheism and Christianity?
Its the same counterfeit [Owo Ijebu] coin, but different sides.

One believes there is no God, or rendered Him irrelevant because He is not visible as if the air or wind is visible or their own brain or thinking is visible.

The other believes there are 3 God Entities, each fully independent and [in absolute confusion, concludes] all of these are 1 God.


Neither group is not on the path of Truth. Each is illogical, just like a hindu or buddhist , etc is.

frosbel:

Warning !!!


Do not derail this thread , this is not an ISLAMIC article.

Mr derailer is talking!!! hahaha. . U kno wat dat feels like ehn??

globexl:

Pure garbage.
Once an atheist and now a christian, So what? And the point of this is?
What about former christians who are now athiest?

Your personal opinions are more valuable in this forum than clippings from websites. On the internet, I could find a website to support and justify any position that I hold. So ,attaching clippings from a website to support your views or theories is not very smart, in my opinion.

As a christian and pastor, I think if you preach on this thread or forum, the gospel of love , tolerance, honesty and charity(by the way, what charities are you involved with?), all of us ,irrespective of our labels or isms,could find common ground to share our ideals, experiences and goals. Should that not be the christian ideal?
Or, is your obsession with athiesm rooted in the fear that athiesm is bad for the church business?
Since you are quite a reasonable fellow, I , for one, would  love to know whether your fixation with athiesm is just an academic exercise, or is rooted in some kind of personal fear.
Thank you.

no mind dem. they av lost the real ideals. all they care about is calling pots black, forgettn they are themselves kettles. .all their I am righteous ends here o, I tell u.

i thnk pastor toba wld b so concerned about the purple. business must continue as usual now!!!!!!

Sweetnecta:

whats the difference between Atheism and Christianity?
Its the same counterfeit [Owo Ijebu] coin, but different sides.

One believes there is no God, or rendered Him irrelevant because He is not visible as if the air or wind is visible or their own brain or thinking is visible.

The other believes there are 3 God Entities, each fully independent and [in absolute confusion, concludes] all of these are 1 God.


Neither group is not on the path of Truth. Each is illogical, just like a hindu or buddhist , etc is.

^^^




Okay I think you are getting too excited now, because I have applauded you for believing in at least a creator.

Otherwise the rest of ISLAM is a fairy tale !

Let me plagiarize this two lines because I love to use them against Christians.


{They the Christians}; Their ideology is based on assumptions and presumptions. No fact. Just theories and guess work.

What intelligent man will anchor his entire existence onto the shaky pillars of unproven hypotheses [Of 3 that become 1 of the same thing].

ah okay, so lets see what is the definition of real religion :

Muhammad flew up to heaven on a Al-Buraf Hafifa  

smdh. i said testimonies. i have only giving a testimony, yet theres too much rage already.

just relax and see what i aim to achieve with my evangelism. I regard hypocrites as people who sees nothing wrong when an action tends towards their side as a favour but when same is perceived as non favourable, they tend to get angry. i may guilty of this myself but it changes nothing. NL religion section is a home of cross sectional atttacks and neither i or anyone else is going change that. we just must live with such reality.

@Frosbel:
You are an artful dodger. I am yet to see you answer any questions on any thread. As a good(?)christian, Kindly respond to my last post.
Thank you.

@Toba;
My post was in reaction to yours.I expect a candid response to my post from you. You people are artful dodgers.

Here is the text of one ex-atheist

Posted by A Lurker on August 17, 1999 at 18:30: 46:

In Reply to: Christians conversions from atheism

posted by Chelonian on August 17, 1999 at 17:00: 34:

You should have fun with this one - this is the founder of the ex-atheists for jesus site-

Sanjay Merchant - Los Angeles At one time in my life I considered myself an atheist. At least I thought that I was an atheist. However, I often struggled with the hypocrisy that I saw in my life due to the difficulties with actually living out atheism. From a detached "intellectual" point of view it's easy to wave your hand and proclaim, "there is no God because there is no proof of his existence." Yet most atheists are really shaking an angry fist in spite of the evidence which they know to exist.

You see, it' s easy to claim atheism, but it' s difficult to live atheism. I' ll explain this later on. But first, I' ll explain some things for those who don' t know what atheism is about. The word "atheist" literally means, "without God". In other words, the nature of man, his moral standards (or lack thereof) and purpose can be explained outside of the recognition of a creator. Most atheists believe that everything we see in existence is the result of natural, physical processes, which can be observed today.

For example, I believed in the "Big Bang" theory and Darwinian evolution. I believed in the "Big Bang" because I thought that it was a scientific explanation as to our existence, while religion was just full of myth. Through later research I found that the "Big Bang" is not science at all since it is not based on direct observation or testable methods. In contradiction, it is adhered to "religiously" by those who wish to purposely reject the idea of accountability and a moral standard. Some say, "Well God could have initiated the Big Bang. " But by the time you get to Ylem (the supposed source of the bang) you' ve effectively eliminated any worshipable god from the picture (a very convenient trick for those who don' t want God but can't disprove him; just make him really small) . In turn, I had simply assumed this theory to be fact as my sixth grade teacher had told me it was so. We studied it along with the fact that the earth revolves around the sun, and that's certainly provable and accepted.

Similarly, I believed that my origins were found in evolution. This was superficially pleasing to me as it was an adequate method to explain away actions that I knew were immoral. Deep inside I was convinced that many of my actions were wrong, but evolution helped me to conveniently rationalize those fears. I was able to blame my actions on my "natural instincts". I would lie to my parents to better my own existence, I would hurt others to ease my own life and assert my dominance over rivals (survival of the fittest) , and I would sleep with my girlfriend due to my animal instinct to procreate (though had we succeeded we would have had an abortion - logical?). I had trouble, however, trying to explain the guilt and sickness I had felt when I knew that I had done what was wrong. Another real problem arose for me when it came to discussing religion. I could calmly discuss the teachings of Mohammed or Buddha, but when it came to Jesus I became very angry. I thought that an atheist should act rationally and never get angry. After all, it was evolutionarily useless to become so mad, unless it preserved my life. I argued with and harassed Christians without cause. I hated their joy and love for one another. I felt that they simply needed a crutch; they could have their crutch, . I was man enough to face my death. But, I found that I was afraid of life. I hated almost everyone, especially myself, . but of course, this was "natural". One evening I went to a Christian Bible study to argue and set people straight, as I thought. I was convinced that I understood life even though I had never heard the Christian message. I simply believed the hypocrisy I had seen in the headlines, the strict regulations imposed by the Vatican and the hate spread by racists who said that they were Christians (its surprising to note the roots of racism lie in atheism, and are nowhere found in the Bible) . I met people who were nothing like I had imagined. I hung on every word of the speaker. I was in awe of his wisdom, while still attempting to disagree. At the end of the evening he asked if he could pray for me. I allowed him as I did not believe in prayer, but didn' t want to be rude. As he finished I opened my eyes in amazement. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was as if I was a newborn, . all my vain arguments and anger passed away. I no longer hated these people. I almost ran out in fear. That night I prayed for the first time. I asked Jesus to help me if he was able. The next day I called my former best friend (I say former because he had become a Christian months before and after many arguments I decided to have no contact with him ). He brought two other men that had been close friends of mine in the past also. They answered all my lingering questions and I understood about God for the first time. Afterwards, they prayed for me. I felt as if I had come into the presence of the Jesus that I had hated so much. I raised my hands to fight, but I felt that his arms were wide open, . ready to forgive and help me. I broke down in tears and gave my life over to Jesus. I didn't join a religion or a church. , I simply can to realize what happens when an atheist meets Jesus.

toba:

smdh. i said testimonies. i have only giving a testimony, yet theres too much rage already.

just relax and see what i aim to achieve with my evangelism. I regard hypocrites as people who sees nothing wrong when an action tends towards their side as a favour but when same is perceived as non favourable, they tend to get angry. i may guilty of this myself but it changes nothing. NL religion section is a home of cross sectional atttacks and neither i or anyone else is going change that. we just must live with such reality.

exactly my point. thank God u got it. Repent and sin no more!!!!!!!!

globexl:

@Toba;
My post was in reaction to yours.I expect a candid response to my post from you. You people are artful dodgers.

my bro, what are u talking about? this is a public forum. we aren't restricted to a particular form of evangelism. Muslims are evangelizing same as the Christians and the evangelical atheists. may be I'm simply evangelizing to further strengthen the faith of other believers not to become atheists, same way dawkins is using his money to organise summer camps for kids aged between 8 to 17, in order to groom atheists. we may be doing same thing

nice thread . . .I hope the likes of Mazaje and huxley are reading?

noetic. i was about to open a thread to declare u missing. lol hope u are doing well

noetic16:

nice thread . . .I hope the likes of Mazaje and huxley are reading?

noeticcccccccccccccccccc!!!!!  . . . . . . .nice to see you man. . . . . .

toba:

noetic. i was about to open a thread to declare u missing. lol hope u are doing well

lol , . .thanks brov. . .but i aint missing

mazaje:

noeticcccccccccccccccccc!!!!!  . . . . . . .nice to see you man. . . . . .

lol . . . .lofly to hear from you bro

It is impossible to say there is no God,when inside you,there is a voice, very silent voice whispering to you that, what you have done is bad. Even an armed robber will have to work very hard to silent this voice,they will smoke,drink, do all kind of things to silent the voice within. All atheist know that there is something inside them whispering to them silently and asking them this question:do you really think there is no God? They will answer back with anger,just to silent the voice. What a miserable life? Everyone has this God's police inside us warning us by speaking silently,faintly to our heart whenever we want to steal,lie,murder,fornicate, or fight or do evil. It is called CONSCIENCE. God2man.

So god is conscience. interesting. hhhmmm.ok. Whether true or not, it makes more sense than the white bearded, yet invisible man in the sky. I agree that human beings are always in conflict with their conscience.
So do you worship and pray to your conscience?
In Ancient Egypt, it was called Maat, the god of truth.
Infact, the ten commandments, wriiten by moses,an Egyptian prince/Pharoah, are excerpts from an eqyptian text titled"Confessions to Maat" which predate moses by thousands of years.
examples from Confessions to Maat:


Not have I despised God.
I have not repulsed God in his manifestations.
Not have I spoken lies.
Not have I set my mouth in motion against any man.
Not have I defiled the wife of a man.
Not have I defiled the husband of a woman.
Not have I committed theft.
Not have I killed.
Not have I violated the times for the chosen offerings.

But where is this small voice when Josua is commanded to kill all that liveth in Jericho?
Where is this voice when pentecostal preachers sap the financial resources of their flock to live large?

Hi folks. I' ve been meaning to write this for quite a while. I' ve shared bits and pieces of my personal story in various threads but I 've never gathered the entire things in one place, so here goes. I was born in 1982 in Lexington, Kentucky. My parents were both atheists at the time, although my mother converted to Christianity while I was a teenager. My parents were and are both good people who gave my brother and I everything that we needed in terms of food, clothing, health care, education, and the like. However, they gave us very little moral instruction, perhaps because they themselves were rather confused on the issue.

Instead, I picked up my worldview in bits and pieces from school books, the media, and various other sources. Following my parents I took up very left-wing political positions. The ultimate enemy was "the religious right", and of course I knew that I was vastly better and smarter than any Christian because I had logic, science, and reason on my side, rather than primitive superstition and fear.

I left for college in 2000, going to Harvey Mudd College in the Claremont system in California. While there , I participated with a number of left- wing political groups, including Ralph Nader's presidential campaign. Of course Nader flopped utterly, and most of the other groups that I participated with tended to be rather stagnant. The more I watched them, the more I noticed signs of insincerity and hypocrisy, until by senior year I finally gave up on political activism.

As my identity had been tied up with those groups during my college years, I needed something else to replace them. I entered graduate school in mathematics and decided to throw myself into my work, seeking to find a sense of purpose there. While I succeeded with that for a little while, I eventually began to doubt that the work itself had much meaning. The particulars of the research I was doing had no meaning in the real world, and eventually I found that I couldn' t do it any more . Also, while in college, some of my professors had introduced me to the despair-inducing works of Nietzsche and the schools of thought that saw all morality as relative, meaning as non-existent, or reality itself as being unknowable. All of this combined to sink me deeply into depression and suicidal thoughts, and I felt as if death had to be approaching because I couldn't see any reason to go on living.

Around this same time I had been hanging out online with some members of several different Christian groups. (I actually encountered them first because I tried writing a few science fiction short stories and I met these people through the publishing industry. ) They impressed me with their intelligence, kindness, and humility. At some point someone introduced me to the British author G. K. Chesterton. After reading a few of his fiction books, I read his apologetic work Orthodoxy, and about halfway through I knew that I was going to become a Christian.

Of course at that time I still knew very little about Christianity. Only after I started going to church and joined a Bible study did I actually read the Bible. I particularly remember reading the Sermon on the Mount for the first time, and as the words of Christ revealed God' s true desires for human life, all the bad philosophy I had taken in over the years simply melted away

I wish that I could write down everything that Jesus Christ has done for me since that time, but unfortunately this forum limits me to only 15,000 words and that's just not enough. So I' ll just have to say that while I used to be a small-minded and hateful, depressed, fearful, and even suicidal person, now I wake up every day thanking God for the neverending joy and love that he's brought into my life .

If you are reading this and you need someone to talk to about Jesus, or just some to talk to generally, please feel free to send me a message. Sometimes I' m away from the internet for a few days but I 'll get back to you as soon as I can.

---

www.christianforums.com/t7576873/

toba:

Hi folks. I' ve been meaning to write this for quite a while. I' ve shared bits and pieces of my personal story in various threads but I 've never gathered the entire things in one place, so here goes. I was born in 1982 in Lexington, Kentucky. My parents were both atheists at the time, although my mother converted to Christianity while I was a teenager. My parents were and are both good people who gave my brother and I everything that we needed in terms of food, clothing, health care, education, and the like. However, they gave us very little moral instruction, perhaps because they themselves were rather confused on the issue.

Instead, I picked up my worldview in bits and pieces from school books, the media, and various other sources. Following my parents I took up very left-wing political positions. The ultimate enemy was "the religious right", and of course I knew that I was vastly better and smarter than any Christian because I had logic, science, and reason on my side, rather than primitive superstition and fear.

I left for college in 2000, going to Harvey Mudd College in the Claremont system in California. While there , I participated with a number of left- wing political groups, including Ralph Nader's presidential campaign. Of course Nader flopped utterly, and most of the other groups that I participated with tended to be rather stagnant. The more I watched them, the more I noticed signs of insincerity and hypocrisy, until by senior year I finally gave up on political activism.

As my identity had been tied up with those groups during my college years, I needed something else to replace them. I entered graduate school in mathematics and decided to throw myself into my work, seeking to find a sense of purpose there. While I succeeded with that for a little while, I eventually began to doubt that the work itself had much meaning. The particulars of the research I was doing had no meaning in the real world, and eventually I found that I couldn' t do it any more . Also, while in college, some of my professors had introduced me to the despair-inducing works of Nietzsche and the schools of thought that saw all morality as relative, meaning as non-existent, or reality itself as being unknowable. All of this combined to sink me deeply into depression and suicidal thoughts, and I felt as if death had to be approaching because I couldn't see any reason to go on living.

Around this same time I had been hanging out online with some members of several different Christian groups. (I actually encountered them first because I tried writing a few science fiction short stories and I met these people through the publishing industry. ) They impressed me with their intelligence, kindness, and humility. At some point someone introduced me to the British author G. K. Chesterton. After reading a few of his fiction books, I read his apologetic work Orthodoxy, and about halfway through I knew that I was going to become a Christian.

Of course at that time I still knew very little about Christianity. Only after I started going to church and joined a Bible study did I actually read the Bible. I particularly remember reading the Sermon on the Mount for the first time, and as the words of Christ revealed God' s true desires for human life, all the bad philosophy I had taken in over the years simply melted away

I wish that I could write down everything that Jesus Christ has done for me since that time, but unfortunately this forum limits me to only 15,000 words and that's just not enough. So I' ll just have to say that while I used to be a small-minded and hateful, depressed, fearful, and even suicidal person, now I wake up every day thanking God for the neverending joy and love that he's brought into my life .

If you are reading this and you need someone to talk to about Jesus, or just some to talk to generally, please feel free to send me a message. Sometimes I' m away from the internet for a few days but I 'll get back to you as soon as I can.

---

www.christianforums.com/t7576873/

I laugh after going through the parts you highlighted in your post, the author whom I believe is just a lair is just trying to get some silly moot points across, since you believe him let me ask you a simple question. . . .Your evidence to show that Christians are more moral and live more fulfilled lives than atheist is WHAT? Since that is what the author of the article is saying. . .

mazaje:


I laugh after going through the parts you highlighted in your post, the author whom I believe is just a lair is just trying to get some silly moot points across,

whats ur proof that hes lying? have u verified any of his claims to arrive at such conclusion?

since you believe him let me ask you a simple question. . . .Your evidence to show that Christians are more moral and live more fulfilled lives than atheist is WHAT? Since that is what the author of the article is saying. . .

hmm hmm. This has got nothing to do with me believing in what the various authors have said about themselves. I may or may not agree with what they have said. we cant say for sure between the thiests and the atheists that one side is morally upright than the other. Im sure u ur self wouldnt want to hang on such belief. I really doubt if the guy is claiming for sure that the christians are morally upright than the atheists

If a former atheist gets the incentive to go back to being religious,that's great. I would do the same if I saw an iota of proof that the christian god is the real deal but do you have to make a mountain out of it? Wouldn't you consider it odd if all the Atheists on nairaland opened "testimony" threads? More and more people are putting religion behind compared to those getting into it (most of whom are kids who have no choice than to obey the will of their parents).

the diiference between the atheists and the thiests is the God factor. one side believes in God whilst the other doesnt. Even if the very few atheists on Nl choose to open a thread, that still amounts to little cos in reality, more and more converts are being gained into the God fold. fact is that some pple are also leaving being religious but in terms of numbers to both sides, the God side still has the highest number of converts daily than what the atheists would claim to be having. If u doubt that, u can ask google for facts or something close to fact on the statistics of converts

toba:

the diiference between the atheists and the thiests is the God factor. one side believes in God whilst the other doesnt. Even if the very few atheists on Nl choose to open a thread, that still amounts to little cos in reality, more and more converts are being gained into the God fold. fact is that some pple are also leaving being religious but in terms of numbers to both sides, the God side still has the highest number of converts daily than what the atheists would claim to be having. If u doubt that, u can ask google for facts or something close to fact on the statistics of converts

What has numbers got to do with anything? Once upon a time the entire world believed that the earth was the center of the universe, until a man challenged that belief and showed it to be false. . . .Once the whole people that lived in Egypt believed that their kings needed to be buried with their loved ones because of their belief in the after life, back in the days every body believed that people think or reason with their hearts because when people are angry or tensed their hearts beat faster so the correct belief at that time was that people reason and think with their hearts until one man showed that the brain not the heart is responsible for all thoughts, even the religious books imply that people reason with their hearts because you will find passages like God knowing about the thoughts we have in our hearts etc. . .  Billions of people today believe in reincarnation, that doesn't make it true. . . .The fact that billions believe in God doesn't make it true either. . .Religious beliefs have absolutely NOTHING to do with reality. . . .Reality and the truth has nothing to do with numbers. . . .Over 70 percent of the world's population does not believe in your religion. . . .Even within your religion many sects do not agree with each other. . . .