{"id":10421,"date":"2024-05-14T11:11:22","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T15:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=10421"},"modified":"2024-05-14T13:00:34","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T17:00:34","slug":"ayaan-hirsi-ali-admits-that-she-used-to-mock-christianity-but-now-regrets-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/05\/ayaan-hirsi-ali-admits-that-she-used-to-mock-christianity-but-now-regrets-it.html","title":{"rendered":"Once Famed Atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali Admits That She Used to Mock Christianity, But Now Regrets It"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ben Shapiro\/YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Women’s rights activist and author Ayaan Hirsi Ali expressed regret for her previous critiques of Christianity at the inaugural Dissident Dialogues conference in New York. Ali, a former figurehead in the New Atheism movement, openly recanted her past assertions that all religions, including Christianity, were equally damaging. During a lively discussion with evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, Ali elaborated on her transformation, revealing that her past belief \u2014 that religions were uniformly destructive \u2014 was misguided.<\/p>\n

She confessed to Freddie Sayers, editor-in-chief of UnHerd and the moderator of the event, “I do regret doing that.” She admitted to the unintended consequences of her advocacy, which included promoting skepticism over faith without offering a viable moral alternative, thereby leaving a void in the cultural and moral framework that she now believes Christianity beneficially fills. She said, “What you value in Christianity is something that really is absolutely necessary to pass on to the next generation. And we have failed the next generation by taking away from them that moral framework and telling them it’s nonsense and false. We have also not protected them from the external forces that come for their hearts, minds and souls.”<\/p>\n

She explained, “You\u2019re coming from a place of \u2018there\u2019s nothing.\u2019 And what has happened to me is, I think I have accepted that there is something. And when you accept that there is something, there\u2019s a powerful entity \u2014 for me, (that\u2019s) the God that turned me around.\u201d Ali added, “Like you, I did\u00a0mock faith<\/a>, in general, and probably Christianity in particular, but I don’t do that anymore. … I have come down to my knees to say that the people who always had faith have something that we who lost faith don\u2019t have.\u201d Ali said she met a woman who told her, \u201cYou\u2019ve tried everything, and you\u2019ve lost hope, you\u2019ve lost faith. Try it, pray.\u201d Ali added that there\u2019s so much wisdom in what she was told.<\/p>\n

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When Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote that she had become Christian, it sounded political.<\/p>\n

But last night she revealed what happened: a spiritual awakening after suicidal depression. Dawkins probed, highlighting \u201cnonsense the vicar says\u201d and Christianity being \u201cobsessed with sin.\u201d Then: pic.twitter.com\/zybhgoMwqi<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Hannah Long (@HannahGraceLong) May 5, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n