{"id":3663,"date":"2024-09-20T09:28:15","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T13:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/?p=3663"},"modified":"2024-09-20T13:30:05","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T17:30:05","slug":"from-atheism-to-christianity-3-stories-of-salvation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/2024\/09\/20\/from-atheism-to-christianity-3-stories-of-salvation\/","title":{"rendered":"From Atheism to Christianity: 3 Stories of Salvation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some people look at the world and see God everywhere. Others see the same world and find no trace of a creator. People on both sides of the debate can hold strong beliefs about the existence of God. So, what reasons might an atheist have to follow a path from atheism to Christianity?<\/p>\n

Three former atheists who found God in very different ways are Josh Timonen, a former right-hand man of famed atheist Richard Dawkins; Allan Sandage, a world-renowned astronomer; and Pedro Garcia, a professional musician.<\/p>\n

Let’s look at each one’s faith journey.<\/p>\n

A Noted Atheist\u2019s Right-hand Man<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Josh Timonen<\/strong> was born into a Christian home but walked away from his faith at 17. \u201cThere were exciting things that the church didn\u2019t really line up with,\u201d he said, per The Daily Declaration.<\/a> \u00a0<\/em>Australia\u2019s largest Christian news site.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Josh Timonen, seen here with Richard Dawkins, found Christ after having been an Atheist. Image courtesy of Elze Hamilton<\/a>, CC BY 2.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He was attracted to the worldview of Richard Dawkins, a leading atheist, evolutionary biologist and author. When Timonen discovered that Dawkins didn\u2019t have a website, he contacted him about creating one. The two men immediately clicked.<\/p>\n

Between 2006 and 2010, Timonen built and managed Dawkins\u2019s website, created documentaries and did other related work. The two men even co-authored a book, The God Delusion.<\/u><\/p>\n

Eventually, Timonen decided to leave, and Dawkins accused him of embezzlement and sued. The case was dismissed, and Timonen countersued Dawkins for defamation. That case was settled out of court.<\/p>\n

Timonen held onto his atheism until recently. The pandemic and the Black Lives Matter riots changed him, according to CNE News<\/em>.<\/p>\n

He explained that he saw \u201cnew evil on display around me. But it was the acceptance of the evil from people I was friends with, people I worked with\u2026. I looked around (and thought), \u2018Who are these people? I thought we agreed with these guys. I thought we were on this page.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He needed to get away.<\/p>\n

Timonen and his wife moved to Waco, TX, where they decided to help their young daughter socialize by finding a good church community.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs atheists not believing in any of this, (we thought) maybe we can steal some of those benefits, those social benefits,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

They began attending what Timonen called a \u201ccowboy church\u201d and sending their daughter to Sunday School. Without any intention of converting, he began asking questions and reading the New Testament, according to CNE News.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that\u2019s something,\u201d he thought when he finished reading it. \u201cBut there\u2019s still a lot of crazy stuff in here that I don\u2019t think I buy\u2026.\u201d However, when he read Case for Christ<\/u> by Lee Strobel, he found \u201csignificant and undeniable evidence for Jesus\u2019 life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Timonen realized he \u201chad to deal<\/em> with the fact that it was real\u2026. Jesus actually lived. He actually died\u2026. I can\u2019t just push that aside.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Faith of a Scientist<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Allan
Allan Rex Sandage \/ Image courtesy of Wikipedia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Astronomer Allan Sandage<\/strong>\u2019s path from atheism to Christianity was unlike the stories of most atheists who convert. He simply wasn\u2019t like most people.<\/p>\n

As a student, Sandage was famed observational cosmologist Edwin Hubble\u2019s graduate assistant. And with Hubble\u2019s death in 1953, he took over his mentor\u2019s work on measuring the universe\u2019s expansion rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1958, (Sandage) published the first reliable measurement of the cosmic expansion rate, better known as \u2018the Hubble constant,\u2019\u201d said Reasons to Believe<\/a>, a religious ministry that Sandage later helped launch.<\/p>\n

From the 1950s until his death in 2010, Sandage was regarded as the world\u2019s foremost observational cosmologist. He wrote more than 500 peer-reviewed astrophysical papers and books and received numerous awards for his work, including the Crafoord Prize, which is comparable to the Nobel Prize.<\/p>\n

Sandage knew he wanted to become an astronomer by age eight, and even as a boy, he leaned toward atheism. And as a young astronomer, he was convinced that science could explain the universe, according to Preaching Today.<\/p>\n

His journey from atheism to Christianity unfolded slowly.<\/p>\n

The acclaimed astronomer discovered that as a scientist, \u201cthe deeper you dig, the more complicated the thing becomes. There are layer upon layer of the intricate gears of a watch; and you keep uncovering layer upon layer and finding more and more connections.\u201d<\/p>\n

His conclusion was that the universe wasn\u2019t an accident. Rather, it was designed, and he wanted to understand its Designer. These thoughts led him to religion.<\/p>\n

Sandage read the Bible and writings of various great Christian thinkers. He was especially struck by Blaise Pascal\u2019s defense of Christianity, which says you have everything to gain and nothing to lose if you believe in Christ.<\/p>\n

\u201cFaith means you have to go all the way, accept Christianity totally or reject it totally,\u201d Sandage realized.<\/p>\n

He credited other Christians who also were scientists with helping him with his conversion. Even so, \u201cIt was my science that drove me to the conclusion that the world is much more complicated than can be explained by science,\u201d he said. \u201cIf there is a God, he must be true both to science and (Christianity.)\u201d<\/p>\n

“It is only through the supernatural that I can understand the mystery of existence,” Sandage said.<\/p>\n

From Atheist to Christian Apologist<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Spanish musician Pedro Garcia<\/strong> was surrounded by Catholic traditions as a child, but in his teens, came to believe the faith was \u201cstupid,\u201d \u201cintellectually dishonest,\u201d and full of \u201cempty rituals,\u201d according to Premier Unbelievable,<\/a> a Christian media organization.<\/p>\n

Although Garcia no longer believed in God, he realized that without God, he had no standard for separating good from evil. \u201cBelief in God has permeated so much of the way we are, whether we want it or not, that rejecting it pushes you to reject so many things about the way we live our lives,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Garcia traveled extensively as a professional saxophone player and eventually settled in the U.S., where he met a Christian woman. He was skeptical of her goodness because he thought \u201cthere are no true good people in the world.\u201d Yet, he came to believe his views were rooted in the knowledge that he<\/u> wasn\u2019t a good person, Premier Unbelievable<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recognized there was something wrong with me\u2026.\u201d he said. But he also came to realize that the woman \u201cwas being 100 percent honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conversations with the woman\u2019s father, a Bible translator, were a turning point for Garcia. \u201cFor the first time, he was having meaningful conversations and receiving substantive answers about Christianity. That\u2019s when he began to think: \u2018There\u2019s something in this,\u2019\u201d Premiere Unbelievable said.<\/p>\n

When Garcia returned to Spain, he decided to learn more about Christianity and study Western philosophy and various religions’ worldviews.<\/p>\n

He \u201cdidn\u2019t want to come to belief just because the woman who intrigued him was a Christian. He wanted to come to belief on his own terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia’s studies led him to a surprising conclusion. \u201cBelief in God is one of the most rational things a human being can entertain,\u201d he said. And he began to open his heart to the idea of God’s existence.<\/a><\/p>\n

When Garcia read Christ\u2019s Sermon on the Mount, he decided, \u201cI would follow anyone that would say these things about the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia finally realized that there is<\/u> a God who created the Universe and wants a relationship with the human beings he created. However, people moved away from God, decided \u201cto create a world of their own\u201d and began to sin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot save ourselves from this madness that we brought into the world,\u201d Garcia realized. \u201cSo, God in his mercy decided to become a human being and died for all of us\u2026. (it) demonstrates an incredible amount of love that I still don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since becoming Christian, Garcia has dedicated his life to helping people know Jesus, \u201cwho brings truth, beauty and identity to life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some people look at the world and see God everywhere. Others see the same world and find no trace of a creator. People on both sides of the debate can hold strong beliefs about the existence of God. So, what reasons might an atheist have to follow a path from atheism to Christianity? Three former…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":689,"featured_media":3861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[128,1131,1134,311],"class_list":["post-3663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-atheism","tag-atheists-who-converted","tag-christian-conversion","tag-christianity"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom Atheism to Christianity: 3 Stories of Salvation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some people look at the world and see God everywhere. Others find no trace of a creator.... 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