Anyone who used to not believe in god change their mind? - Page 2

[kaleidoscopeeyes]

I was raised Catholic, but loosely so. I went to Catholic school, but my family wasn't involved really at all. My mom made us say mealtime and bedtime prayers but that was it. My dad was loosely protestant, but besides a brief stint in a Foursquare church, had no belief to speak of. In my teens I began to really question religion and God...I kept up appearances though. I was active in a Lutheran youth group for awhile, but would always try to skip out of prayer because i felt like a hypocrite. I was staunchly agnostic/bordering on atheist by the time I finished high school. I continued to study world religions though. I firmly believed religion was the opiate of the masses and a sure sign of low intelligence. To make a very long story short, I was severely depressed for many years and nearly took my own life in December 2005. The process of coming back from that...it changed me. I knew God existed as surely as I knew my name was Carmen, the sky was blue, etc... I knew He was at work in my life, even when I failed to notice it. It took another year of me fighting with myself to admit that. The moment I stepped back into a Church, I knew I was home. It took a a long time for me to be "out" about my faith with my friends and family. I still often think they don't take me seriously, suppose it's a phase, etc.

It has been a humbling and sometimes frightening experience, but I wouldn't change where I am now for anything.

Oddly enough, I got a tattoo on my left hip that December, of a lotus flower. I admired the Eastern symbology of the lotus as a symbol of rebirth, a pursuit of wisdom, purity of the heart and spirit. I wanted those things for myself, but believed they were out of my grasp at that point. I was resigned to my own death. In hindsight, I consider that tattoo my first real prayer. God answered my prayer.

[Smokering]

Not me, but DH did a rather dramatic volte-face from rampant, angry, diehard atheism to Christianity a few years ago (four, now?). He was raised by very Catholic parents, but never taught much theology. In high school his childhood acceptance was challenged by the usual atheistic teenage arguments, and he got into Thinking and Destiny and New Ageism for a bit under the influence of a friend, and then quickly became an atheist.

His conversion was due to a lot of reading up about philosophy and presuppositional theology, and an introduction to Calvinist theology, which he'd never heard of. Basically he'd spent years in atheist mutually back-slapping forums, and occasionally debating appallingly badly-taught Christians... so he was rather surprised to find that there were answers to his favourite rhetorical questions. It was an embarrassing turnaround for him, and he lost a lot of friends (gained a wife, though, but that's another story!). Now he's a fervent apologist who's written a book about theology. Stranger things!