I grew up in Australia, in a loving, secular home, and arrived at Sydney University as a critic of “religion.” I didn’t need faith to ground my identity or my values. I knew from the age of eight that I wanted to study history at Cambridge and become a historian. My identity lay in academic achievement, and my secular humanism was based on self-evident truths. As an undergrad, I won the University Medal and a Commonwealth Scholarship to undertake my Ph.D. in History at King’s College, Cambridge. King’s is known for its secular ideology and my perception of Christianity fitted well with the views of my fellow students: Christians were anti-intellectual and self-righteous.

After Cambridge, I was elected to a Junior Research Fellowship at Oxford. There, I attended three guest lectures by world-class philosopher and atheist public intellectual, Peter Singer. Singer recognised that philosophy faces a vexing problem in relation to the issue of human worth. The natural world yields no egalitarian picture of human capacities. What about the child whose disabilities or illness compromises her abilities to reason? Yet, without reference to some set of capacities as the basis of human worth, the intrinsic value of all human beings becomes an ungrounded assertion; a premise which needs to be agreed upon before any conversation can take place.

I remember leaving Singer’s lectures with a strange intellectual vertigo; I was committed to believing that universal human value was more than just a well-meaning conceit of liberalism. But I knew from my own research in the history of European empires and their encounters with indigenous cultures, that societies have always had different conceptions of human worth, or lack thereof. The premise of human equality is not a self-evident truth: it is profoundly historically contingent. I began to realise that the implications of my atheism were incompatible with almost every value I held dear.

One afternoon, I noticed that my usual desk in the college library was in front of the Theology section. With an awkward but humble reluctance, I opened a book of sermons by philosopher and theologian Paul Tillich. As I read, I was struck at how intellectually compelling, complex, and profound the gospel was. I was attracted, but I wasn’t convinced.

A few months later, near the end of my time at Oxford, I was invited to a dinner for the International Society for the Study of Science and Religion. I sat next to Professor Andrew Briggs, a Professor of Nanomaterials, who happened to be a Christian. During dinner, Briggs asked me whether I believed in God. I fumbled. Perhaps I was an agnostic? He responded, “Do you really want to sit on the fence forever?” That question made me realise that if issues about human value and ethics mattered to me, the response that perhaps there was a God, or perhaps there wasn’t, was unsatisfactory.

In the Summer of 2008, I began a new job as Assistant Professor at Florida State University, where I continued my research examining the relationship between the history of science, Christianity, and political thought. With the freedom of being an outsider to American culture, I was able to see an active Christianity in people who lived their lives guided by the gospel: feeding the homeless every week, running community centres, and housing and advocating for migrant farm laborers.

One Sunday, shortly before my 28th birthday, I walked into a church for the first time as someone earnestly seeking God. Before long I found myself overwhelmed. At last I was fully known and seen and, I realised, unconditionally loved – perhaps I had a sense of relief from no longer running from God. A friend gave me C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, and one night, after a couple months of attending church, I knelt in my closet in my apartment and asked Jesus to save me, and to become the Lord of my life.

From there, I started a rigorous diet of theology, reading the Bible and exploring theologians such as Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Ramsey, and F.D. Maurice. Christianity, it turned out, looked nothing like the caricature I once held. I found the story of Jacob wrestling with God especially compelling: God wants anything but the unthinking faith I had once assumed characterized Christianity. God wants us to wrestle with Him; to struggle through doubt and faith, sorrow and hope. Moreover, God wants broken people, not self-righteous ones. And salvation is not about us earning our way to some place in the clouds through good works. On the contrary; there is nothing we can do to reconcile ourselves to God. As a historian, this made profound sense to me. I was too aware of the cycles of poverty, violence and injustice in human history to think that some utopian design of our own, scientific or otherwise, might save us.

Just as radical, I realized, was the new creation which Christ began to initiate. This turned on its head the sentimental caricature of ‘heaven’ I’d once held as an atheist. I learned that Jesus’ resurrection initiated the kingdom of God, which will “bring good news to the poor, release the captives, restore sight to the blind, free the oppressed.” (Luke 4:18) To live as a Christian is a call to be part of this new, radical, creation. I am not passively awaiting a place in the clouds. I am redeemed by Christ, so now I have work to do. With God’s grace, I’ve been elected to serve – in whatever way God sees fit – to build for His Kingdom. We have a sure hope that God is transforming this broken, unjust world, into Christ’s Kingdom, the New Creation.



My name is Sarah Irving-Stonebraker I am a Senior Lecturer (with tenure) in Modern European History at Western Sydney University in Australia and I am an ex atheist.


Cc anas09, felixomor, sciencewatch, sonofthunder, Olaadegbu, muttleylaff, winner01

When Jesus's spirit is on a person testifying truthfully about ones own life becomes easy.

Sarah Stonebraker is by normal standards an extremely intelligent, hardworking and respectable lady. But examine her testimony closely and see the dark demonic forces active in her so-called life accomplished life.

She says, " I knew from the age of eight that I wanted to study history at Cambridge and become a historian. My identity lay in academic achievement, and my secular humanism was based on self-evident truths. As an undergrad, I won the University Medal and a Commonwealth Scholarship to undertake my Ph.D. in History at King’s College, Cambridge. King’s is known for its secular ideology and

My perception of Christianity fitted well with the views of my fellow students: Christians were anti-intellectual and self-righteous."

We will soon see how Sarah held false beliefs about Christianity. (Jesus and God)

Read the op CAREFULLY and repeatedly then go read how SATANIC atheists receive their training to destroy world religions especially Christianity at this link" https://www.nairaland.com/4601231/atheist-finds-refuge-peace-christ#69128077

All Christians must read this horrific Atheists Training Manuel the copy and share it at churches and schools.

Butterflyleo, the mighty Holy Spirit is moving you to protect his innocent gentle followers. He is filling you with mighty courage as you navigate through the valley of the shadow of death.

Life is empty without God

Your recent threads reflects the deteriorating stats of your mental health. I feel your pain Mr butterfly, nobody take you serious in this section anymore.hence, you've been starved of the attention you so much crave and this attention deficiency is the root cause of the psychosis troubling you. Please visit a psychiatrist before you enter onitsha market.

sKeetz:
Your recent threads reflects the deteriorating stats of your mental health. I feel your pain Mr butterfly, nobody take you serious in this section anymore.hence, you've been starved of the attention you so much crave and this attention deficiency is the root cause of the psychosis troubling you. Please visit a psychiatrist before you enter onitsha market.

I would have ignored you but I need to reset your rather shredded sense of assessment which is obviously spilling out from a place of ignorance. My joy is that the more you guys type, the more you confirm my warnings to my brethren and the more they will keep ignoring you guys.

You will continue being starved of the attention you crave. Do you think I need your attention? The likes of you are not my focus. My focus is my brethren and they have always listened to me which is why they all quickly followed my warning of ignoring you guys.

Ever since I put up that warning, the religion section has gone quiet with you guys being restricted to idle banter between yourselves alone. It must be boring right? The religious no longer have time for you deceptive lot and so shall it remain.

Now the religion section is looking tamer and more sane which shows that the ones scattering and causing chaos here were you the atheists.

By the way, my current threads clearly reflect how I started here on nairaland because my very first thread was the same as these so it isn't new. I just resolved to go back to using you guys as my lesson subjects to my brethren. You guys make a very good before and after example and a very good example of bad vs good.

Check out my earlier thread

https://www.nairaland.com/3983424/atheist-neurosurgeon-finds-god-after

So stop misguiding yourself by assuming this is new for me because it isn't. In simply fulfilling a promise I made to one of you atheists a long time ago that I would flood the nairaland religion section with testimonies.

I am sure you have read the ones I posted. Make sure you read the others I will be posting soon too. It just might help reset your mental degradation.

Butterflyleo:


I would have ignored you but I need to reset your rather shredded sense of assessment which is obviously spilling out from a place of ignorance. My joy is that the more you guys type, the more you confirm my warnings to my brethren and the more they will keep ignoring you guys.

You will continue being starved of the attention you crave. Do you think I need your attention? The likes of you are not my focus. My focus is my brethren and they have always listened to me which is why they all quickly followed my warning of ignoring you guys.

Ever since I put up that warning, the religion section has gone quiet with you guys being restricted to idle banter between yourselves alone. It must be boring right? The religious no longer have time for you deceptive lot and so shall it remain.

Now the religion section is looking tamer and more sane which shows that the ones scattering and causing chaos here were you the atheists.

By the way, my current threads clearly reflect how I started here on nairaland because my very first thread was the same as these so it isn't new. I just resolved to go back to using you guys as my lesson subjects to my brethren. You guys make a very good before and after example and a very good example of bad vs good.

Check out my earlier thread

https://www.nairaland.com/3983424/atheist-neurosurgeon-finds-god-after

So stop misguiding yourself by assuming this is new for me because it isn't. In simply fulfilling a promise I made to one of you atheists a long time ago that I would flood the nairaland religion section with testimonies.

I am sure you have read the ones I posted. Make sure you read the others I will be posting soon too. It just might help reset your mental degradation.

Bla Bla Bla now repeat this without crying.

Anyways, I gave you a like taking the tally to 4 seeing that you get off on them. So you don't need to stress yourself logging into your 5th account to like your post.

sKeetz:


[s]Bla Bla Bla

I gave you a like taking the tally to 4 seeing that you get off on them. So you don't need to stress yourself logging into your 5th account to like your post. [/s]

If you are quite finished you can now stop trying to derail this lovely thread about how a once deluded atheist found Jesus and embraced him and let me focus on putting up more threads such as this one.

If you do not want me to catch you floating around such threads you can read them while in guest mode.

I know they make an interesting read because they show that atheists who were vastly more intelligent than you still came to Christ. So I guess one with a much lower IQ index like you wouldn't stand a chance in the presence of same scenario.

This will surely give you sensory overload because it has already begun.

Cheers and happy reading

sKeetz:
Your recent threads reflects the deteriorating stats of your mental health. I feel your pain Mr butterfly, nobody take you serious in this section anymore.hence, you've been starved of the attention you so much crave and this attention deficiency is the root cause of the psychosis troubling you. Please visit a psychiatrist before you enter onitsha market.

Please sKeetz don't derail a truth Laden thread such as this. I know you are compelled to behave in this tragic manner because of the horrific training you choose to do using THE ATHEISTS TRAINING MANUEL. Your SATANIC indoctrination is successful and complete.

I have kindly posted a few lessons extracted from THE ATHEIST TRAINING MANUEL for you to occupy yourself with while the mighty work of the creator God continues. Silence is needed.

Extract from THE ATHEIST TRAINING MANUEL;


6. Be sure to set your own moral standards and compass very, very, very low so that you'll never look like a hypocrite in public. The lower the better.

7. Be as argumentative, obnoxious, loud, sarcastic and verbal as possible - there is no need to make sense or use logic in your arguments - just keep arguing.

8. Use words like 'straw-man,' 'circular reasoning,' 'ad hominem,' 'fallacy,' 'red herring' and 'non sequiturs' against any argument which reveals the false claims of atheism whether you understand those terms or not.

9. Never answer any justified question directly but quickly change the subject to make a completely different point. If you're asked why you keep changing the subject just repeat this step as necessary.

Christians must read this shocking training manual. The full version that Butterflyleo reposted from BudaAtum can be viewed at this link.
https://www.nairaland.com/4601231/atheist-finds-refuge-peace-christ#69128077

Butterflyleo:



You will continue being starved of the attention you crave. Do you think I need your attention? The likes of you are not my focus. My focus is my brethren and they have always listened to me which is why they all quickly followed my warning of ignoring you guys.

Ever since I put up that warning, the religion section has gone quiet with you guys being restricted to idle banter between yourselves alone. It must be boring right? The religious no longer have time for you deceptive lot and so shall it remain.

Now the religion section is looking tamer and more sane which shows that the ones scattering and causing chaos here were you the atheists.

Absolutely correct. I am a man of few words but the insanity of Atheism and the Satanically inspired ATHEISTS TRAINING MANUEL moves my heart to rage against it.

True Christians and other Theists are acting on your kind warning because it is written.
DO NOT THROW YOUR PEARLS OF WISDOM AND TRUTH TO THE ATHEIST SWINE.

sKeetz was respectfully asked to read his SATANIC atheist training MANUEL again.
Butterflyleo reposted the horrific Atheists Training Manuel here;

https://www.nairaland.com/4601231/atheist-finds-refuge-peace-christ#69128077

ScienceWatch:
BudaAtum can be viewed at this link.
https://www.nairaland.com/4601231/atheist-finds-refuge-peace-christ#69128077

Sauce please!

budaatum:

Sauce please!

Thank you for posting the source. I hate saurce.

budaatum:

Sauce please!

I noticed that you changed my post to make it seem like I actually said that.

Brilliantly deceptive. I am tying to remember where in the Atheist Training Manuel this dangerous tactic is encouraged ? Could it be lesson 3; 8; 19 or 26 ?

budaatum:

Sauce please!

Sorry sir. The kitchen is closed.

ScienceWatch:
I noticed that you changed my post to make it seem like I actually said that.

Changed your post?!

Must we teach you not to lie!

My God is ever faithful

ScienceWatch:
Sorry sir. The kitchen is closed.

This guy

Butterflyleo:




This guy

Lol He is very sly.

Meanwhile, download the PDF - The Rabbi who found Messiah

JEWS are flocking to accept Jesus as their true Messiah. Rabbi's are going to secret meetings to learn more.


Cc anas09, felixomor, sciencewatch, sonofthunder, Olaadegbu, muttleylaff, winner01
doctoralien, anas09, goodmuyis, bennyann, MsNGO40, malvisguy, scholar8600, temi4fash, ishilove, rekinomtla

Wisdom of man is foolishness unto God