You always hear stories from Christians, like Kirk Cameron or Lee Strobel, who say they used to be atheists, but then they found Jesus because of the facts.
And then you hear their facts. And it basically boils down to something like I read the Bible, and it's just totally true.
Or, you know, I looked at the evidence, and Jesus totally had to come back from the dead. I mean it makes you wonder if they were real atheists, to begin with, or if they were just apathetic about religion because most people are.
But here's a question for you...Do real vocal active atheists ever find God? And if they do, what the hell is going on there?
The quick answer is, "Yes." It happens.
Not often, but sometimes. But whenever it does, the reasons are never very convincing. There's actually a famous case of a philosopher named Antony Flew, who was a very vocal atheist for most of his life.
And then toward the end of it, in his 80's, he announced that he did believe in God, but only in a deistic sort of way. Essentially, he felt like there had to be an explanation for why we're here, and God to him seemed like the best option.
Flew didn't believe in the afterlife, and he didn't buy into the whole Jesus thing. But he thought the idea of a higher power made some sense. He even said in an interview that he believed in an "Inoffensive, inactive God."
So let's admit: He's no Pat Robertson and he's no Rick Warren. He still thought that guys like them were wrong But that didn't stop Christians from claiming Flew as one of their own.
If there are conversion stories of atheists becoming religious, they are few and far between. At least relative to the number of religious people who become atheists.
And every time an atheist finds God, it's always along the lines of, "There's something I can't explain so I guess I believe." That's about as good as they can get. And by the way, it's really rare for an atheist to turn to a specific religion.
Because how exactly do you make a case for Jesus resurrecting, turning into a wafer, virgin birth, or talking snake, or that birth control is evil.
That doesn't happen. When they do switch teams to a specific religion, it's usually because they just found a church that makes them feel at home.
You know, it gives them hope; it makes them feel good. It's not necessarily because they just suddenly accept all the little doctrine and dogma of that new faith.
In other words, atheists rarely convert because of facts or reason.
Those tools still belong to us.
Originally published by Hemant Mehta on the Atheist Voice. Published on Fadewblogs by Dave Martin.
Disclaimer: This article is published on Fadewblogs with the permission of the author.