Some individuals who were once atheists have spoken or written about their journey to Christianity. Here are a few quotes from former atheists who became Christians, describing their thoughts and experiences related to their faith:
C.S. Lewis (1898–1963), Author and Scholar:
- “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.”
- From “Mere Christianity”
Francis Collins (b. 1950), Geneticist and Director of the National Institutes of Health:
- “I set out to prove that my atheist position was correct. I met a lot of people who had peace in their lives, and I began to wonder whether I had missed something. In my scientific travels, I had never really encountered the evidence for faith. But as I read more and more, it became clear to me that it was the rational and logical step to believe in God.”
- From an interview with CNN
Lee Strobel (b. 1952), Journalist and Author:
- “To continue in atheism, I would need to believe that nothing produces everything, non-life produces life, randomness produces fine-tuning, chaos produces information, unconsciousness produces consciousness, and non-reason produces reason.”
- From “The Case for a Creator”
Antony Flew (1923–2010), Philosopher and Author:
- “The evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion. It’s outstandingly different in quality and quantity.”
- From an interview with Gary Habermas
Alister McGrath (b. 1953), Theologian, Priest, and Scholar:
- “Atheism, I began to realize, rested on a less-than-satisfactory evidential basis. The arguments that had once seemed bold and conclusive increasingly turned out to be circular and feeble.”
- From “Surprised by Meaning”
Peter Hitchens (b. 1951), Journalist and Author:
- “I am a theist and a Christian, a convert from atheism who took a long time to overcome my innate and educated scorn for such things, and who is very conscious of living in an era of militant secularism.”
- From “The Rage Against God”
It should be noted that personal journeys from atheism to faith are unique and multifaceted. These quotes offer a glimpse into the reasoning and experiences that influenced these individuals’ transitions to Christianity.
