This is an interesting article, ok everyone pick away and comment.

By TIMOTHY LARSEN
Have you ever heard the one about the Christian who started to study calculus and ended up losing his faith? Of course you have. Such "conversion" to atheism is supposed to be the story of all modern, thinking people. But imagine it happening the other way around. Moreover, imagine the convert being a well-informed, public intellectual who had long made it his business to argue that faith is irrational?

Just such a conversion has happened to A.N. Wilson, the 58-year-old British biographer, novelist and man of letters. He was once an observant Anglican and, later, a Roman Catholic, but in the 1980s he lost his faith and began skewering the supposed delusions of the faithful. His antifaith stance was expressed in books such as "God's Funeral" (1999) and "Jesus: A Life" (1992). A few weeks ago, however, Mr. Wilson confessed that Christ had risen indeed. He attributed this to "the confidence I have gained with age." He now says he believes that atheists are like "people who have no ear for music or who have never been in love."

Mr. Wilson's story matches that of other skeptical authors who became convinced by Christianity, not least in Victorian Britain, when Darwin and various modern ideas shook the foundations of faith among the educated classes. Among the notable examples from Victorian Britain are Thomas Cooper, the most popular free-thinking lecturer in London in the 1850s; George Sexton, the most academically accomplished secularist intellectual of the time; and Joseph Barker, a well-respected leader of the mid-19th-century free-thinking movement. The 20th century also had its share of writers and intellectuals who rediscovered Christianity as mature thinkers, including T.S. Eliot, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, C.S. Lewis, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh and W.H. Auden.

Our modern assumption that thought and faith are incompatible can be traced to the Victorian atheists. As one of them snidely remarked when a fellow secularist came to faith: "I find it hard to believe that someone could progress backwards."

For his part, A. N. Wilson had denounced as dishonest every leading Victorian intellectual who maintained a commitment to orthodox Christianity. Indeed, in "God's Funeral" he did not just go after the usual targets, such as John Henry Newman, but savaged even Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. They were not presented as simply mistaken, but rather as downright "dishonorable."

Secularist leaders were usually raised religious. As clever youths, they would begin to handle the Bible critically. They prided themselves in being "rational" and would decide that Christian beliefs did not meet this standard. They would then go on to find intellectual satisfaction in picking apart the beliefs of others. Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason," a book beloved by free-thinkers in the 19th century, systematically went through the Bible, gleefully mocking each book in turn.

Those who later recanted their atheism began to doubt their doubts went on from this common start to begin to doubt their doubts. They gradually decided that their rationalistic method was too narrow: It could pick holes not only in Christianity but in any attempt to distinguish between right and wrong or to articulate the meaning of life. They came to realize that they could only tear down and thus were left intellectually with no habitable place to live. John Henry Gordon, who held the only full-time, salaried secularist lecturer position in England, came to believe that secularism was a creed of "mere negations."

Having realized that their method was flawed, they then began to reconsider faith. Christianity, they discovered, spoke to the deepest realities of human experience. George Sexton, for example, decided that Jesus as presented in the Gospels was so compelling and haunting that only a historical original could account for this: "If Christ be simply an ideal picture, the man who sketched it will be as difficult to account for as the Being himself."

Their skeptical pasts did leave a permanent stamp on their thought. Joseph Barker believed as a young man that the Bible was error-free. As a free-thinking lecturer he specialized in highlighting problem passages. As a convert, he conceded that the Bible was not perfect but went on to argue that it was perfectly suited to speak to the human condition. The Swiss Alps are not perfect cones, he observed, but this does not detract from their grandeur. Thomas Cooper declared that his newly rediscovered faith did not include a belief in eternal punishment.

As is the case with Mr. Wilson, intellectuals often pursue long, drawn-out love affairs with Christian thought. Next time you hear someone fume that God is the most contemptible being who never existed, keep in mind that you just might be watching the first act of a divine romantic comedy.

Mr. Larsen is the author of "Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England" (Oxford University Press, 2008).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124355313058264477.html

Sorry to spoil the fun but there're atheists who convert to islam, buddism,sikihsm even satanism. So those you mentioned doesn't make christianity the 'true' faith. A few even convert to christianity and later revert to atheism again.
You shouldn't be so happy though coz according to you (i know you're a catholic) most 'll still end up in hell along with the other 30,00
xtian sects around (bad news for davidylan,noetic and other protestants)

Tùdor:

Sorry to spoil the fun but there're atheists who convert to islam, buddism,sikihsm even satanism. So those you mentioned doesn't make christianity the 'true' faith. A few even convert to christianity and later revert to atheism again.
You shouldn't be so happy though coz according to you (i know you're a catholic) most 'll still end up in hell along with the other 30,00
xtian sects around (bad news for davidylan,noetic and other protestants)

O another restless sinner. how does her post offend you?

@ OP, AN Wilson columns are always interesting read

Another self righteous bigot. Did i say i was offended?

Tùdor:

Sorry to spoil the fun but there're atheists who convert to islam, buddism,sikihsm even satanism. So those you mentioned doesn't make christianity the 'true' faith. A few even convert to christianity and later revert to atheism again.
You shouldn't be so happy though coz according to you (i know you're a catholic) most 'll still end up in hell along with the other 30,00
xtian sects around (bad news for davidylan,noetic and other protestants)

Where in that article does it say that Christianity is the true faith?
Are you stating this just to make yourself feel better?
You know how most atheists attack christianity because that's the only faith they know?
Well this article talks about atheists who attacked Christianity that later on accepted the faith.

By the way most of them were Christians who left the faith and then returned. And died as Christians.

Tùdor:

Sorry to spoil the fun but there're atheists who convert to islam, buddism,sikihsm even satanism. So those you mentioned doesn't make christianity the 'true' faith. A few even convert to christianity and later revert to atheism again.
You shouldn't be so happy though coz according to you (i know you're a catholic) most 'll still end up in hell along with the other 30,00
xtian sects around (bad news for davidylan,noetic and other protestants)

actually, many atheists convert to satanism but use atheism as a cover.

I dont really believe Muslims who say they're atheists.

Nairaland atheists will be converted too. Amen

Image123:

Nairaland atheists will be converted too. Amen

The truth is many will be lost forever. No point being sentimental about the truth.

davidylan:

The truth is many will be lost forever. No point being sentimental about the truth.

I thought the bible says that god is the one that chooses who ever he wants to save and who ever he wants to destroy according to his will?

toneyb:

I thought the bible says that god is the one that chooses who ever he wants to save and who ever he wants to destroy according to his will?

That's because He can see the begining from the end, He already knows those who will be lost BECAUSE THEY CHOSE TO.

davidylan:

That's because He can see the begining from the end, He already knows those who will be lost BECAUSE THEY CHOSE TO.

Exactly.

God gave us 'freewill' to do and choose as we please.

davidylan:

That's because He can see the begining from the end, He already knows those who will be lost BECAUSE THEY CHOSE TO.

The bible says he CHOOSES who he WANTS to save and who he doesn't want to save according to HIS will. Not because he knows those that will be lost because they chose to, the bible does not talk about people choosing but god choosing those he wants to save according to his will. Stop lying for jesus.

toneyb:

The bible says he CHOOSES who he WANTS to save and who he doesn't want to save according to HIS will. Not because he knows those that will be lost because they chose to, the bible does not talk about people choosing but god choosing those he wants to save according to his will. Stop lying for jesus.

You have a basic problem: i outline it here.

1. you have already formed your own opinion irrespective of the facts i[b].e. salvation is not by choice.[/b]

2. You are willing (99% of the time dishonestly) to twist the bible to FORCEFULLY support your bias i.e. the bible says He choose who He wants.

3. You simply take ONE VERSE from the bible forgetting to take other areas to provide some context BECAUSE context and understanding isnt what you want, proving your false hypothesis is your main goal.

Now lets address your lies -

1. Salvation is by choice -

John 3:5 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16or God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Acts 10:35 But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

2. Salvation is a two-way street . . . you have to ACCEPT CHRIST FIRST before He will draw you to Himself -

James 4: 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

3. However God also knows those who will be lost . . . those who will REFUSE, SCOFF, MOCK and LIE till the end.

4. It is not His fault.

davidylan:

You have a basic problem: i outline it here.

1. you have already formed your own opinion irrespective of the facts i[b].e. salvation is not by choice.[/b]

2. You are willing (99% of the time dishonestly) to twist the bible to FORCEFULLY support your bias i.e. the bible says He choose who He wants.

3. You simply take ONE VERSE from the bible forgetting to take other areas to provide some context BECAUSE context and understanding isnt what you want, proving your false hypothesis is your main goal.

Now lets address your lies -

1. Salvation is by choice -

John 3:5 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16or God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Acts 10:35 But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

2. Salvation is a two-way street . . . you have to ACCEPT CHRIST FIRST before He will draw you to Himself -

James 4: 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

3. However God also knows those who will be lost . . . those who will REFUSE, SCOFF, MOCK and LIE till the end.

4. It is not His fault.

You have had this debate so many times with others, If there is one thing this debate shows is that the bible is very internally contradictory it says one thing in one place and says another in another place. The writers/redactors did not take time to go through the writings and make sure that they were internally coherent. The bible in some places talks about salvation as a two way thing while in others it talks about it as a one way thing. Everything depending on the will of god.


Rom 9:10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac,
Rom 9:11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad--in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls
Rom 9:12 she was told, "The older will serve the younger."
Rom 9:13 As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
Rom 9:14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means!
Rom 9:15 For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
Rom 9:16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
Rom 9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."
Rom 9:18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
Rom 9:19 You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?"
Rom 9:20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?"
Rom 9:21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?
Rom 9:22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
Rom 9:23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory

Eph 1:4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
Eph 1:5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
Eph 1:6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Eph 1:11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

Php 2:13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.


Joh 6:65 And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me[b] unless it is granted him by the Father[/b]."

toneyb:

You have had this debate so many times with others,

now you understand why i rarely listen to you tools but respond to you with the disdain you deserve. If you've seen the debate before then why bring it up again? why dont you go read the others and shut up?

davidylan:

now you understand why i rarely listen to you tools but respond to you with the disdain you deserve. If you've seen the debate before then why bring it up again? why dont you go read the others and shut up?

Because you keep repeating the same lie over and over again.

toneyb:

Because you keep repeating the same lie over and over again.

Actually the reverse is the case. You never hear us talk about it until you guys have one of your manic episodes where you recycle the same questions over and over and over again.