Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read - Religion - Nairaland
Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Religion / Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read (2611 Views)
Even The Atheists Who Don’t Believe In God Are Created In His Image / Islamic Cleric Divorces Wife Who Converted To Christianity & Changed Name / Atheists Who Converted From Christian Families.....share Your Expirience Here. (2) (3) (4)
| Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by OLAADEGBU(m): 9:50pm On May 23, 2019 |
Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity (A Must Read) By BP-Pub-1 - May 20, 2019 The Jennifer Fulwiler, Leah Libresco and Holly Ordway: three women whose intellectual journey led to their conversion from atheism to Christianity When Oxford academic CS Lewis wrote about his adult conversion from atheism to Christianity in Surprised by Joy (HarperCollins) in 1955 it became an apologetics classic, one still read by Christians and seekers to this day. His story included the realisation that his belief in justice and morality required a transcendent moral lawgiver and that Jesus' claim to be the Son of God only made sense if it was true. But there are many modern-day converts whose journeys echo Lewis' own search for truth. Christians can learn much from what brought others to faith. These are three stories of how morality, beauty and love led three sceptics to the person of Christ. The story you're about to read is of three powerful women whose intellectual journey led to their conversion from atheism to Christianity Holly Ordway Most people, believers or not, experience moments of transcendence when they encounter music, art and literature that moves them deeply. What if those moments of transcendence that interrupt our lives are actually pointing us to God? Such moments were staging posts in the early life of C.S. Lewis as he struggled to make his atheism fit with his experience of 'joy' when he encountered poetry, literature, music and beauty that seemed to belong to another world, a process he describes in Surprised by Joy. University lecturer Holly Ordway also developed a love of literature and poetry as a child, devouring Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia and Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Brought up in a secular home in the USA, she was oblivious to the Christian allegories in both. In retrospect she believes that God was working through her imagination even as she dismissed the idea of religion as irrelevant. As Holly progressed into higher education, her unbelief solidified into atheism, but when she began a career teaching literature and poetry she suddenly found herself undone by the power of what she was reading, especially within the Christian tradition. She described the experience: "I remember reading the opening of John Donne's sonnet 'Batter my heart, three person'd God; for you as yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend.' I felt like I had touched a live wire. That was the point at which the imagination that had been a river below the surface in me started bubbling up and I thought, 'There's something happening in this poetry, and I wonder what it is'." Encounters like these brought Holly to the point of believing there was a God who fired the imaginative sense within her, but would eventually lead her to also investigate the beliefs of Christian poets such as Gerard Manley Hopkins and TS Eliot whose writing she connected with so profoundly: "I had a two-step conversion, first to belief in God then to belief in Christ. If I hadn't become convinced that the resurrection was an event in history, I would have stayed a theist. So, I ended up becoming a Christian, as the imagination and the reason came together. I now see that what people like Gerard Manley Hopkins (hands down my favourite poet) gave me before I was a Christian was a little glimpse of the world that showed me that it made sense in some way that I hadn't experienced before. I've now stepped into that world." Having experienced those stabs of joy, Holly went from appreciating the work of these poets to jumping into the same stream of reality they inhabited. This was the experience of CS Lewis too. In his little-known short essay Meditation in a Toolshed, he wrote about the difference between understanding something through observation and experience. The anthropologist who studies religion can give a compelling sociological explanation for why people believe, just as the biologist can give a chemical explanation for the love you feel towards your partner. Lewis likened this to standing in a dark toolshed and seeing a beam of light coming through the gap at the top of the door. This gives you an idea of what the beam of light is. But re-position yourself to stand looking along the beam of light, and the dark toolshed itself would disappear to be replaced by bright sun and the tops of the trees waving outside. Lewis writes: "You get one experience of a thing when you look along it and another when you look at it. Which is the 'true' or 'valid' experience? Which tells you most about the thing?" Holly has borrowed Lewis' metaphor, saying of the Christian poets she had come to love: "I've stepped into that 'beam of light' so that I can look with them, and they can show me more than they could before." https://believersportal.com/three-powerful-atheists-who-converted-to-christianity-a-must-read/ 2 Likes 2 Shares
|
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by OLAADEGBU(m): 11:31am On May 25, 2019 |
Jennifer Fulwiler As any parent knows, the birth of a child is a life-changing event. Priorities, lifestyle and sleep patterns are all quickly rearranged to accommodate the now-most-important thing that has come into one's life. For some people, however, the change runs even deeper than that. Jennifer Fulwiler grew up in a loving family, but one in which religion was painted as clearly false. Jennifer says that she never remembers a time when she believed in God. Raised on a diet of "science, reason and evidence-based rational thought," her bedtime reading was Carl Sagan's astronomy book Cosmos. From a young age she knew that the world ran according to a well-established set of natural laws, and science was the de facto way of understanding everything. All the evidence confirmed that we live in a material world of matter, molecules, electrons and protons, with no need for God. Jennifer remained a happy atheist as an adult and into the early years of her marriage. However, shortly after the birth of her first child, she experienced a dramatic shift in her thinking. Jennifer described it this way: "I looked down and thought: 'What is this baby?' And I thought 'Well, from a pure atheist, materialist perspective he is a randomly evolved collection of chemical reactions.' And I realized if that's true then all the love that I feel for him is nothing more than chemical reactions in our brain. And I looked down at him and I thought: 'That's not true. It's not the truth.'" This moment was a turning point for the young mother. She embarked on a quest to see if religion made sense and started to look into spiritualism, Buddhism, Hinduism and mysticism. The only religion that was off the table was Christianity – her parents had done a thorough job in ensuring Jennifer regarded it as patently false. Eventually her husband (also a non-believer at the time) persuaded her to look into the claims of Christianity. After all, if it was false, it should be easy to dismiss. However, her investigations led Jennifer to conclude that Jesus really was who he said he was, a journey described in her book Something Other Than God (Ignatius Press). Jennifer's change of mind began when something clicked in her head. The scientific explanations she had grown up with weren't enough to explain the totality of what she was experiencing in the bond with her child. On a scientific level, she would have known well enough that as she looked at her baby, a whole bunch of neurons firing on overdrive in her brain would be producing a set of chemical reactions and hormones, and that those would be contributing to the emotional urge to protect and care for her newborn son with every ounce of her being. But that physical description alone couldn't explain the actual experience of fully fledged love. It was a phenomenon that CS Lewis also recognised. If (as many atheists claim) the world really boils down to a complex set of chemical and physical processes then love, beauty, meaning and even truth itself are merely illusions of a mechanical mind: "If minds are wholly dependent on brains, and brains on biochemistry, and biochemistry (in the long run) on the meaningless flux of the atoms, I cannot understand how the thought of those minds should have any more significance than the sound of the wind in the trees." However, in the end, even those who believe the world is governed by physical laws find it difficult to believe that love is merely an illusion. 1 John 4:8 states that "God is love." For Lewis and Fulwiler alike, only the existence of God could make sense of our deep-seated belief in love. https://believersportal.com/three-powerful-atheists-who-converted-to-christianity-a-must-read/ 1 Like 1 Share |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by paraltero: 12:06pm On May 25, 2019 |
Unlike religions, most atheists' belief or (lack of) isn't tied to authority figures so....this would make no difference. In this particular setting, atheists typically are firm with the assertion that faith is personal. 2 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by Nobody: 2:59pm On May 25, 2019 |
The only think capable of converting an atheist is "evidence" If they became theists overnight without any shred of evidence to support the existence of God, they were never truly an atheist. It is as simple at that... If they were, they would have provided the evidence that converted them but rather, still dwell on the one thing real atheist detest the most - faith.. There have been records of Christians converting to Buddhism. It doesn't prove anything, no does it make a difference when a self-proclaimed atheist do the same. |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by Heathen777(m): 10:29pm On May 25, 2019 |
Three powerfull atheists that converted to christianty..... (richard dawkins better be on this list). Hmmm, he wasn't on it.....OPs sensational title goes to show of how some Christians would wholeheartedly use conversion stories as an argument. When in reality you can do the same for any other sets of beliefs. Christian to Muslim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZmOrhBjl9A Christian to Hindu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8A9iEYAUcE Christian to Budhist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORaLP_nN3Pg Christian to Atheist: ME Here's a rule of thumb,if your argument that can be easily used against you, it isn't a sound argument. 5 Likes |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by OLAADEGBU(m): 1:42am On May 26, 2019 |
paraltero: Who told you that atheism is not a religion on it's own?  |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by LordReed(m): 4:26am On May 26, 2019 |
And all 3 of them are Catholics, the thing you hate other than atheism and JW. 2 Likes |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by CAPSLOCKED: 5:10am On May 26, 2019 |
WHERE'S THE LIST OF THE MILLIONS THAT ARE LEAVING CHRISTIANITY ON A DAILY? DON'T YOU THINK YOUR GUILLIBE AUDIENCE DESERVE TO SEE THAT TOO? 4 Likes |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by CAPSLOCKED: 5:12am On May 26, 2019 |
OLAADEGBU: IT'S A RELIGION WHERE PEOPLE SIMPLY DON'T BELIEVE IN ANY GODS.
|
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by OLAADEGBU(m): 9:52am On May 26, 2019 |
Leah Libresco In 2012, mathematician and self-described "geeky atheist" Leah Libresco appeared on my radio show Unbelievable? to discuss her conversion to Christianity. Up until that year Leah had been a blogger of some repute on the atheist channel of the Patheos network, writing on mathematics and scepticism and interacting in a friendly way with many Christians. But something called 'the moral argument' had niggled away at Leah for years. She couldn't shake the belief that some things are really right and wrong, not just a product of her feelings and cultural preferences. Just as she recognised the reality of a mathematical realm that existed independently of us humans, so she had to admit the reality of a moral realm of good and evil. The moral truth that abusing children is wrong is true in the same way that two plus two equals four. But such beliefs about right and wrong made no sense in her atheistic worldview where morality, if it existed, was purely subjective – something that humans had evolved for social advantage. Her growing belief that morality is a fixed and objective reality only made sense if there was a God. Her conversion caused a backlash from the atheist community Her conversion to Christianity caused a backlash from the atheist community and garnered public attention when she told her story to news channel CNN. In her interview Leah explained that while plenty of questions remained, Christianity explained the things she was sure of better than her atheism could. As she put it: "Morality is something we discover like archaeologists, not something we build like architects. Christianity offered an explanation for it that was compelling." When Leah came on the show I set her up in conversation with Hemant Mehta, a fellow blogger from the same atheist network she had once been part of. His blog is called 'The Friendly Atheist' and he was one of the first to post a critical response to the mathematician's conversion. For this encounter Mehta was not so much 'friendly' as 'flummoxed.' He admitted that he couldn't even understand all of her philosophical terminology, much less her line of reasoning. Above all, he simply couldn't comprehend what it was about the moral argument that had possessed her to become a Christian, especially in a world in which her God allowed such evil and suffering to exist. Perhaps, again, CS Lewis' story could have helped here. Like Mehta, Lewis objected to God on the basis of the evil he saw in the world, but his conversion mirrored that of Leah's as he realised that his objection only made sense if a moral realm existed: "My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing the universe with when I called it unjust?" Mehta may be as confused by Lewis' conversion story as Leah's, but the young mathematician's story is evidence that some roads to Christ involve profoundly intellectual journeys and that the moral argument continues to be a powerful reason for sceptics to embrace God. This publication first appeared on Premier Christianity https://believersportal.com/three-powerful-atheists-who-converted-to-christianity-a-must-read/ 2 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by paraltero: 10:43am On May 26, 2019 |
OLAADEGBU: I'm not getting into that argument |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by OLAADEGBU(m): 11:31pm On May 27, 2019 |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by asalimpo(m): 1:06am On May 28, 2019 |
CAPSLOCKED:atheism is a religion- a faith based one even. The conclusion that God doesnt exist is based on faith. There is no conclusive argumnt for or against the existence of God. If u dont believe in God then you dont believe in creation hence u settle for evolution- a theory tht raises more questions than it has answers. You require more faith to believe in evolution than in creation 1 Like |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by LordReed(m): 2:31pm On May 28, 2019 |
asalimpo: How is not having faith equal to having faith? |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by asalimpo(m): 10:16am On May 29, 2019 |
LordReed: you have no faith in a diety. But you have faith in science and believe it even if you don't fully understand some of it's claims. You accept it. You are hopeful that science will resolve ur ignorance one day. You have faith-just not in God but in something else. |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by LordReed(m): 10:36am On May 29, 2019 |
asalimpo: I don't have in science neither does science require faith for any of its operations. This is an equivocation fallacy, you are changing the meaning of faith here so that it appears as though the faith you have in your god is similar to the confidence one puts in scientific facts. Even if you put no confidence in any scientific facts they work regardless but not so for your god so how can they be the same thing? 2 Likes |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by asalimpo(m): 10:53am On May 29, 2019 |
LordReed:I used science going by the unverified assumption that you were an evolutionist. You r either a creationist or an evolutionist by d way. They're no other options. I use the term faith based on an object but unstated definition. I was talking about verified scientific fact(s) but in science as a guiding light to lead the ignorant into the/all truth ,in time. In this way, it's adherents are patient with their doubt's. Accept that it's okay not to know it all. Etc they believe one day it will all b explained,by science. That is faith. It parallels the same faith religious ppl have in their dirties. As for religion not working,it dies. The degree varies by people. Many testimonies of real life acts if God abound . |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by LordReed(m): 11:11am On May 29, 2019 |
asalimpo: Why is your god only working in the lives of few? Ah yes faith of course. Why is anybody able to pick up a phone and use it? Science. There is no substance called science that people pray to or hope towards so I don't know where you got that from. Science is what we called the act of inquiry, observation, testing and verification. You can call it whatever you like but as long as you are following the rigor involved in doing the acts then you are doing science. Why you want to call this a faith based religion is ludicrous because there is no simple hoping going on here like you seem to suggest. It is like saying because I hope for my salary I am doing faith based religion. No, I go to work and do my bit to get it. 1 Like |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by asalimpo(m): 1:16pm On May 29, 2019 |
LordReed:Your question,why is God only working in the lives of a few,is a question about the modus of the diety. Assuming,your claim is correct (it isn't), The burden is on you to know how the relationship works btwn the diety nd His worshippers bf you criticize. In science, they are principles involved before a critique can b made or a conclusive statement made e.g that mosquitoes cause malaria. Same applies here. I never Implied that science is an entity like s diety. But it is a belief-system. It is consulted. Relied upon. Hoped upon. And shapes ones way of thinking. Just like any religious system. The principles of faith,applies to science as it does to religion. |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by LordReed(m): 1:24pm On May 29, 2019 |
asalimpo: Which of my claims is incorrect?.
I really need to know where you get this idea from. How does one "consult science" like you say? So anything that shapes ones thinking and is relied upon is a religion? Is schooling a religion? How about politics? Entertainment? |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by asalimpo(m): 1:37pm On May 29, 2019 |
LordReed:Does politics n entertainment seek to address life's questions and form a framework for living? Religion does that and so does science. Does politics ask or answer the question, how did this world come about? Does entertainment answer the question, what happens when we die? Is there life after death? |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by LordReed(m): 1:53pm On May 29, 2019 |
asalimpo: Science does not form attempt a framework for living neither does it attempt to answer questions like why are we here or what is the meaning of life. If that is what you think it does then you are mistaken. |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by asalimpo(m): 4:49pm On May 29, 2019 |
LordReed:doesn't science answer hypothetical questions like how we came about? As for saying science doesn't answer question s on d purpose if life,you r not updated. It does. Ask any leading atheistic scientists , Dawkins etc. Science creates frameworks for living,else no legal systems would b implemented in secular countries. Legal systems are based on philosophical frameworks on how life should be lived. There is science behind it. As science changes so are new laws created nd old ones dropped or changed. Let me ask you, why is it unlawful to harm animals? Why can't ppl go fight in public? Why should retirees expect a pension? Why shouldn't u beat d traffic light,if you didn't hurt nobody? Why Etc While the science behind philosophy is'nt hard science, it is non religious and attempts to answer all human enquiry. Philosophy is the father of science. |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by asalimpo(m): 4:54pm On May 29, 2019 |
OLAADEGBU:I don't know them, besides I don't see why the word powerful should be used with them. Powerful how? Influential? Who knows them? |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by LordReed(m): 5:22pm On May 29, 2019 |
asalimpo: Ok so now you have shifted it to philosophy right? Because it's quite clear science doesn't attempt to answer those questions. Science remains a tool and tools get used for just about any purpose. What does Dawkins say? That he worships science or that science is religion? |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by asalimpo(m): 5:44pm On May 29, 2019 |
LordReed:Philosophy is d foundation of all science. They aren't mutually exclusive. Dawkins answered the question of the purpose of life. Science,the physical science has an opinion on the origin of life and the universe. The question that started this was faith which atheists place in science as Christians place in God and the Bible. We look to God,you look to science. Hence science us a religion,nit because you worship a diety but because you consult it on life issues. And hope it will eventually have an answer to pressing questions. As do religious ppl. |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by LordReed(m): 6:16pm On May 29, 2019 |
asalimpo: Dawkins is not science neither is he a priest that we listen to in a church or something. Ok so now another equivocation which still misses its mark. It answers no such questions so how are we consult it for such? This is just word games to fit something into the pigeon hole you labelled for it. |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by asalimpo(m): 7:15pm On May 29, 2019 |
LordReed:Dawkins is a professor of biology or so,and one if the most reputedly I intelligent men alive. His opinion matters. He is an evangelical atheist,whose views other atheists respect. If Dawkins was wrong,then other atheists would've called him out on it. None did. You r d one calling you arguments word games. I defend my stance with logic. I don't have to play word games with any1 but if u want to debate my stance,i'm willing to give a reason for my stand. I have explained how atheism is a religion based on science and how science forms the bedrock,yet u say I'm playing word games. "It answers no such questions"- this is wrong. Philosophy does try to answer such questions. Hard science can't answer such questions about the purpose of life because such answers would b unobjective. |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by hakeem4(m): 7:54pm On May 29, 2019 |
asalimpo:stop this fallacy we don’t have faith in science, we acknowledge and accept its evidence given and if it’s not enough we dismiss it |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by hakeem4(m): 8:01pm On May 29, 2019 |
asalimpo:First of all there are no scientific authorities it’s not like religion where the imam or pastors tell the members how to behave, believe or do whatever.
Atheism is not a religion for fucking sake. Is theism or pantheism a religion? It’s just a position of belief. Theism: believe in gods or gods Atheism : lack of belief Simple. It’s like me asking you what is your favorite carbohydrates and you say rice. Then you in turn ask me what mine is and I reply “ I do not eat carbohydrates” and you conclude that “ not eat carbohydrates is your favorite carbohydrate “ |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by LordReed(m): 8:47pm On May 29, 2019 |
asalimpo: You keep mentioning Dawkins like he is some kind of prophet we rely upon to show us the way. Besides what exactly did Dawkins say that you think we hold as immutable? You r d one calling you arguments word games. I defend my stance with logic. I don't have to play word games with any1 but if u want to debate my stance,i'm willing to give a reason for my stand. Thiss is where you started from: asalimpo: And now we are philosophy then you say its not word games. |
| Re: Three Powerful Atheists Who Converted To Christianity, A Must Read by malvisguy212: 10:02am On May 30, 2019 |
LordReed:the reality in which atheism is commonly called has in common in which religion is called. |
Ancient Egyptians Were Black Skin Not Brown / Can Man Live Ethically And Morally Without The Guidance Of Religion? / Evolution Of The Eye
(Go Up)
| Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 134 |