LucidLight

I am very interested to find out if anyone here was raised atheist and then converted to any other god based religion. I want to be clear here.

1. I am not talking about parents who just never talked about religion or went to church. I am talking about active atheist parents that strove to teach critical thinking and had active discussions about why they thought religion was bs.

2. I don't want to hear that your friend or your friend of a friend was a hardcore atheist and converted. This will be considered hearsay and might as well have no meaning.

3. I do not want to here from people who parents did not believe in god because of all the evils that have been inflicted on them. This is a stupid argument for atheism. It is like saying "I do not believe in the mailman cause all he brings me are bills." I would suspect someone who is an atheist because of this reason could be converted.

4. When I say converted I mean CONVERTED, the whole shebang. Someone who now follows a practiced organized religion with all the beliefs that go with it. Not just, "I think that there is just some sort of higher force driving life."

If there are any out there, I would be greatly interested to hear your story and why you made the "leap of faith". But I seriously doubt that any one who was taught how to think for themselves and to question everything could be roped in by any religion. Now we do know that there have been many converts from christians to atheism, from priest to the average man. If religion has the truth then this thread should get filled with Testimonials.

Heathen Dawn

I was raised atheist and am now a neopagan theist, but judging from the qualifications you’ve posted here, I doubt I make your case.

No, my parents are atheists, but not hardcore ones. They just disbelieve in Gods and the supernatural by default, not by any sort of systematic thinking. But there was a time when I was a systematic atheist.

My mum cites the Holocaust as her primary reason for disbelieving in God. My dad doesn’t, he just says he has no reason to believe.

Well … Wicca is a neopagan religion and, as such, less organised than what you’d be used to seeing in Christianity or Islam. But I believe in the essentials of that religion, and I’ve practised with a group and studied under a High Priestess. The question of organised or not aside, it really was a conversion: a change in my way of thinking and in my actions, from regarding events as coïncidences to seeing omens everywhere, to watching my uttering of words lest it turn my fate for bad, to prayer to the Goddess and the God in every time of need, talking to Them when I feel the need to talk to someone, performing rituals to build my personal relationship with Them, and many other things.

I wasn’t happy with atheism, and I wasn’t confident enough to fully rely on myself. I needed the Gods to talk to and ask for help, the ritual to make me feel good, and the belief of life after death to bring me hope for the future. I value my happiness above everything else.

I know all the atheistic arguments and counterarguments to theism, but they wouldn’t move me a bit, since atheism isn’t a live choice for me, I’m so happy this way, I’d have to be a f***ing idiot to leave my current state to come back to the gloomy one.

EssEff

Madalyn Murray O'Hair's son is a fundamentalist minister and activist.

Rusting Car Bumper

People, atheist and theist, believe all sorts of incorrect things and merely because one "thinks for oneself" doesn't prevent someone from believing something that isn't true.

There atheists and theists alike that believe that the holocaust didn't happen, or that men didn't land on the moon, and so on.

It's interesting to note that in Heathen Dawn's case his reasons for changing to theism were emotional rather than rational. For example, "I wasn’t happy with atheism, and I wasn’t confident enough to fully rely on myself. I needed the Gods to talk to and ask for help, the ritual to make me feel good, and the belief of life after death to bring me hope for the future." He never misses an opportunity to insult the rest us by calling our outlook, "gloomy." What's interesting is that most of us view theism as "gloomy" but that's not why many of us left it.

Also, we don't rely on ourselves. We realize, in our state of affairs in the world, that we rely on our interaction with the world. We can surrender to it, and make up fantasies to mitigate it or we can stand up and take charge of it and our lives. A naturalistic worldview doesn't depend on me alone. I didn't invent all those things I know about the world so there is not much of "relying on myself."

DC

LucidLight

Thanks for the reply. It makes a point I failed to recognize during my first post (that some people need religion to be happy). Like the venerable Jesse Venture once said "religion is a crutch". I respect your ability to recognize you needed it to be happy. And that you found a religion that does not try to convert everyone else to its belief system. Maybe one day you will have the confidence in yourself and the inner mojo that a belief system will not be necessary to sustain your happiness.

Y.B

From Heathen Dawn's profile: "I’m not open to changing my beliefs."

Well, at least he admits it...

LucidLight

If you can find an actuall testimonial from him please feel free to post it here.

Heathen Dawn

“Insult”? Firstly, may it not be a statement of my own taste, meaning “I find atheism gloomy”? And secondly, let’s suppose it’s objectively true—do you find the truth insulting?

It appears that religion is the only crutch that, when a person walks with it, other people are justified in laughing at him. When any other crutch is concerned, such as a wheelchair for the disabled, all are agreed that it’s not appropriate to laugh here.

Yeah, one day be happy and turn your back on the Goddess and the God that had helped you through all the difficult years, yeah. Disposable Gods.

Rusting Car Bumper

You sure seem to make statements about your own taste, that others might find insulting, rather frequently. Wow. What a coincidence.

Let's suppose that 48 is a prime number. I'm not sure what good it does to suppose things that aren't in evidence and aren't likely to ever be in evidence.

This reminds me of those after school specials for kids. The boy always strikes out in baseball so his brother gives him his lucky bottle cap and then the kid hits a home run. But then the kid loses the bottle cap and is afraid to tell his brother he lost it. His brother eventually finds out and tells his little brother that it was an ordinary bottle cap from an ordinary coke bottle. The kid then understands that his success was not from a lucky bottle cap and he goes on to hit another home run.

Heathen Dawn I don't blame you for being angry at atheism but in time we all can lose the bottle cap *AND* be happy. Even you, Heathen Dawn.

DC

Heathen Dawn

???

Hmmm, nice way of showing how it is possible to speak about the Placebo Effect without mentioning the word “placebo.” I didn’t think it was possible but you’ve now proved me wrong, tip of my hat to you.

1. You don’t score points by comparing me to a little kid. Reflects poorly on you, I’d have you know.

2. My beliefs aren’t placebos. Creator, Gods, magic and afterlife really exist, objectively so. The fact that I can’t prove it makes no difference. You can disbelieve but I can’t—the Gods have spoken to me as one person to another, which the President of the United States hasn’t done, I have more reason to believe in the Gods than in the President of the United States.