Ex-Atheists: What Changed Your Mind? (page 3)

Chalam

LWT, can you expand upon this or are there some old thread I can read?

I was first saved in a Baptist Church, during my youth. It was during Vacation Bible School.

Blessings,

Stephen

cyberjesus

I would like to ask the Ex-Atheist to what extent their atheism go?

Why do they became atheist? Because of research? lack of evidence of Gods existence? Or because they "Felt" things were so bad thay they hadno option but to think that God didnt exist?

Was your Atheism based on an emotional desicion? or a rational one?

When there is snow on the hills, I am walking in the sunshine, and my bag is full of good books, I am happy to be alive, and I thank Jehovah in a silent prayer. When I am with friends and family, or thinking of those who have passed away and the times we had, I thank Jehovah for this brief adventure life. But when I am in pain or the news is bad I feel utterly alone, and speak to no one, and ask for nothing.

babygirl75

Here's my take on the whole "once saved always saved". If you are truely saved, You give your life/heart to Jesus and submit to his will. You are living for him. It doesn't give you a free ticket to do whatever you want. If you think it's a free ticket to do whatever you want, are you REALLY saved?

leavingwt

LWT, can you expand upon this or are there some old thread I can read?

I was about 8 years old. The preacher was inviting everyone to 'come on down' and accept Jesus. Honestly, I think I mostly gave into peer pressue. Everyone else was doing it, and all of the kids who 'were saved' would ask me if I was saved. So, I went on down and gave myself to Jesus, as best as I knew how. I never felt anything otherworldly or supernatural. One week later, I was baptized in front of the congregation.

That's about all there is to the story. At 10, my parents joined the JWs and at 15 I was baptized as a JW.

dandingus

I toyed with atheism for a while after I rejected pretty much every religion mankind has concocted. But I came back to the middle a little more and settled on agnosticism, due in large part to physics and studying the order that exists in and the complexity of the universe. In the absence of quantifiable, observable evidence I cannot prove the existance of God. But neither can I disprove it.

It becomes a choice to believe in the existance of a higher power or not. Now, having made the choice to believe that He exists at all, the challenge is to determine what if anything He expects of us or wants us to do. But this is where religion can come in and start polluting the thought process.

I profess no religion, but at this point I'm not atheist. That's as far as I've personally come with it. I'm still searching...

slimboyfat

Wasn't Russell an "ex-atheist" of sorts? An appropriate question for us then in the sense that is was his change of heart that sparked the religion we are/were part of.

The trouble with labels such as atheist and ex-atheist, as I see it, is twofold. Firstly the neat lines implied by such categorisation are arbitrary and malleable. Secondly the subjects to which the labels are applied, our individual identities, are socially constructed and not fixed entities. Who is an atheist? Who can say? Himself or another? There is no such thing as belief without doubt, just as there is no doubt without belief. How can I call myself this or that as if I am the master of all that I am, whatever this "I" is. I can tell you what I sometimes think about God (as I have done) and the reasons I give myself when I ask myself why I am thinking them. But I won't go beyond that to say a name by which I should be known, as if it accurately portrays what "I" am.

leavingwt

slimboyfat -- Excellent points. For the sake of this particular thread, I'm willing to use basic definitions and even view matters from the perspective of the believer. (To him, defining an 'atheist' is a very simple.) The variety of belief and non-belief are infinite, when we look closer, as you've articulated.

SixofNine

Others do use it as an excuse to do anything, evidently.

And if you're smart, you'll do the same ;)

Balsam

After the loss of my 15 year old son to death and my questioning my faith in the JW religion, I gave up on religion and had no belief in anything especially not a god. I believe I was touched spiritually through a dream, and when I awoke I knew that for me rejecting the Divine was not possible. I had to search for a spiritual community and had to follow my intuition because I had nothing else. I am now Presbyterian and it is a good fit and does not choke the life out of me like the JW's did. I spent about 2 years as an atheist. Something about being an atheist is that I understand how they feel. I felt such a relief when I decided I was an atheist and it felt good in the beginning but as time went on life felt like a huge waste of time in some respects. Then a powerful vivid dream and I knew in my heart of hearts that I needed more.

Ex-Atheists: What Changed Your Mind?

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