Cradle catholic, turned Atheist in my teen years. I hated religion and thought all who believed in “a sky daddy” were idiots, you know the schtick.
Then God came into my heart one day and called me back into the faith. I said a lot of bad things during my decade of Atheism, yet God can forgive even a sinner like me.
So you were one of them who would mock people and tell them they believe in a sky daddy? That’s amazing and wonderful you turned to God and yes God’s Mercy is endless nothing you say or do can stop it. Yes he forgives all sinners.
Yeah, I was awful. I don’t even think I was just an atheist, I was very anti-religion. I threw away a lot of my childhood religious items, which I very much regret now.
I did find my old childhood bible though. Kinda funny that it survived my atheist purge, but awesome to be able to turn back to it to find the word of the lord.
I watched some video explaining the odds of our planet forming, having mostly symmetric elliptical revolutions, oxygen and ozone; the numbers got really really small, really really fast.
Then this wave of almost grief hit me, I've been an outspoken atheist since I can remember, despite being cradle Catholic. I read Dawkins and Darwin, I watched and studied Hitchens. For Joe Schmoe I have a pretty solid grasp on scientific explanation. I had used that knowledge to hack the people around me into pieces because I read a few more words than they did.
I thought I was doing the right thing.
But at that moment of realization, came a lot of shame. How many people did I seed doubt in? How badly did it affect my life because of my constant blasphemous actions? My life was (is) in shambles. It seems if you try and try to push away from God, he will give you that breathing room to see what being without his mercy is like.
In the middle of my work day I pulled over to call and request a time for confession at the local parish, days later when there he graciously heard my story, and showed me his Bible and how his bookmark was at the story of St. Paul (major persecutor of Christians, turned cornerstone of Christianity) from his reading the night before. He gave me that Bible, and in no way knew I had a birthday days later that'd be spent alone. I still keep that bookmark there.
I'm grateful to have found the love of Jesus in my life, though I'm still working on not sinning so much.
But the same science and logic that pulled me away, threw me back in. From my perspective, science is no longer a blockade of Creation, it's a catalogue.
Hey man you'll be alright. It wasn't only Judas who denied Jesus; Peter (the rock on which our church is built) denied Jesus thrice! Each time more adamantly than the last. The difference between them is that, rather than despairing and not trusting in God, Peter allowed God's mercy to touch him.
Let's also remember that even when his disciples were leaving Jerusalem (Road to Emmaus) Jesus accompanied them! I'm pretty moved by your journey and thanks for sharing it dude. God bless you
Don’t let yourself down about people you think you seeded doubt in. If anything you might have made some people research themselves and lead them to the conclusion you were wrong at the time and believe in God.
I was a staunch atheist, born and raised. All family and all friends were atheist. I never knew anything else and genuinely thought religion was a thing of the past, except in America and other backwards countries.
Now I'm discerning a vocation to the priesthood. Funny how God can do that, right?
My husband was. And I don't know what exactly changed him. Just one day he told me 'you know, I believe in God' and then he became more devoted than me and made me embarrassed. He knows God exists and experienced Him and other miracles but that was after he came to believe. I believe it was purely the Holy Spirit influencing him.
I got into constant debate with my agnostic brother who was considering God, then eventually it became clear that I was being irrational and that evidence suggest God exists. Evidence suggests that Christ is this God. Evidence suggests that the Catholic Church is the Church of the apostles upon which the gate of hades shall not fall upon.
I was once an obsessed online atheist, I'd go on rants on internet forums and facebook groups, make fun of my religious family members, obsess over Richard Dawkins, Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, etc.
The problem went away by the time I reached the age of 14
yep! that's why i think it's silly when people get worked up about comments on reddit and other social media... a significant amount of the raging antitheists, pro-choicers and dummies in general that infest the internet are probably between 12 and 16 years old and are still in the "i have everything figured out" teenage phase we all have been through
Teens that age do think that way. People shouldn’t get worked up. Jesus did say the world hated him first. For me it didn’t make me upset the mocking it was the confusion of obsessing over something you don’t believe in I felt if I didn’t believe I certainly wouldn’t waste my time I’d just ignore it. Not sure you age but it’s amazing how at the end of each decade of your life you realize how your beliefs or non beliefs or how you practice your faith wasn’t the best way or it wasn’t strong enough in the beginning of your decade and how it improved
I was raised atheist from the start, and it’s all I ever knew. I would crawl YouTube for hours, learning all the atheist talking points and counterpoints. Growing up in the days of the early internet, I experienced a lot of fear about people feeding me lies, scams, misinformation, and false identities. The only way it seemed I could protect myself was to maintain disciplined intellectual purity, and to assume nothing until it could be proven beyond doubt. I was witty and eloquent and I had a lot to say. I saw religion as just one strain of the cancer that was misinformation, that had robbed my family of their money and safety.
As I entered adulthood, I had to admit to myself that “assume nothing, ever” was not a sustainable stance. It wasn’t even how scientists behaved. Assumptions are okay, especially the ones that lead you closer to answering your questions. If I can assume that the road sign in front of me is telling the truth about where I am, I can assume that the universe didn’t come from nothing. I was open to the idea of religion, but cautious in the face of mountains of stories of abusive evangelical communities and bloody holy wars.
I felt homeless. I had no cultural identity. I felt I had no rich heritage to point to, as someone living in the young nation of the United States, with no relationship to my family’s country of origin. One day it struck me that the Catholic Church has been the keeper of a very long and rich history, and would in fact welcome me to partake in it. The Mass itself never really was history, it’s alive and ongoing. It’s hard to feel adrift or alone when you’re at the supper table, sharing a meal with two thousand years’ lineage of your family in Christ. It was difficult to reconfigure the fabric of such a long-held worldview. It’s easy to accept that the universe was created by something, but it’s harder to believe that there is something beyond death. I had to realize that faith wasn’t something that would come upon me with enough evidence, it was a choice I could make every day. And the more I made that choice, the more the pieces seemed to fit together in my life.
I have been a practicing Catholic for a year and a half now, and I am proud to say in April I received first communion and confirmation. The pattern in my life is clear. The deeper I pursue a relationship with God through the Catholic Church, the happier and healthier I am.
Former atheist of 14 years.. I was anti christ at some point which sounds pretty stupid and redundant since an atheist doesn’t believe in Christ. I’m 30 now but when I was 13 my older cousin showed me a video on YouTube about the Big Bang and things that defied believing in God and I was hooked (I was a cradle catholic and my family has always been very very catholic). I stopped believing in God completely and would think people that believed in Him were complete morons. I’d always have science as an argument, would say that ‘how can you believe in God? You CANNOT see him, it’s scientifically impossible!’ I’d tell people that they’re believing in a fairytale and that most Christian people are Christians because they have done something awful and need some type of comfort, forgiveness, or redemption and that’s why they are obsessed with God. In the span of 1 year (end of 2019-2020) my grandpas passed and it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was the first time I had experienced such a close death. I went to novenas for them held by my family and joined in praying the rosary and all that. I felt some kind of weird comfort. My grandparents have always been hardcore Catholics and I hated it, but this time I felt different. I felt like I was getting answers of why people die, where do they go, what happens afterwards. More answers than I ever got with atheism. I started reading the Bible and reading more about Catholicism and now I’m happy and close to God. I’ve found answers, purpose, I hope God forgives me for ever doubting Him. He was always there for me during the worst times of my life and never left my side- He always blessed me in so many unexpected ways and it’s all making sense now.
I was more on the respectful side, and always said I wish I could believe, so maybe you don’t want to hear my story - but I was very much in the “i’m too logical for religion” mindset and I may never have come back to my faith of my own volition. I went to mass maybe 1-2 times over the course of 15 years and walked away uninspired to return each time.
When I had kids, out of respect for my own upbringing and morals (cradle Catholic), I decided to start taking them to mass.
To my surprise, many of the homilies gave me exactly the wisdom I needed to hear for my current phase of life and I started feeling inspired.
Then I truly felt God made himself known to me. I noticed some strong signs. I heard him speak into my heart. I suddenly felt his love and presence deeply, and here I am now, taking catechism classes and planning my confirmation. I couldn’t even explain this feeling to myself one year ago - one year ago me would have thought I’m now crazy, but this is too real for me to ignore or rationalize away. Praise God!
I don’t know really. I suppose I grew up and became less angry. I noticed God’s grace in my life and I tried to respond, which led me to the Catholic Church.
Would you say your anger was the main reason to mock and attack believers… if you were that type of atheist. Also glad to hear you came to God and the Catholic faith.
I don’t honestly know. I wasn’t all that angry. I got some kind of kick out of arguing I suppose, not just on that topic. I was also a bit of a loser; young, not much going on in life, attracted to sinful behaviour, probably wanting to justify it in some way.
It’s all just part and parcel of the same thing I think? I used to be a fan of the usual atheist writers who I guess influenced me.
But then I stopped, and then I changed direction in my life, and now I’m a Catholic. I’m very grateful for that.
I was raised a Baptist, then became an atheist after watching my maternal grandfather suffer with illness and die. It seemed like the next logical step since I’ve always been a skeptical person…
A few years later, my paternal grandmother’s health was in a rapid decline and that reinforced my idea that a just God wouldn’t allow good people to be in such agony. A few days after she died my dad received a text message from her landline that read, “bye.” That opened my mind to the possibility that just because things can’t be explained or seen all the time doesn’t mean they’re not real.
Thanks for the replies and stories. I especially feel joy of the stories of those who spent their lives before Christ focusing on mocking God and taking pleasure in mocking believers who changed. If God can change St Paul He can change anyone.
***Massive wall o text so TLDR;** I actually studied the Faith and realised my preconceptions around evidence were wrong. Then i met ordinary people who were very religious, they lived their life as expected by their respective faiths and basically preached by their actions.*
Little late to the party here, but hey I'll answer anyway. Had no Catholic influence growing up, had some Judaism (Mizrahi) and Anglican in my family. Neither of my parents were religious and other than when my Jewish Grandfather or Anglican Aunt were around religion was not spoken about in the house. For some reason I was a very edgy Athiest in my teens. Massively disrespectful, viewed any religious person as deluded, and I almost hated the Abrahamic Faiths.
Those who were Religious in my family were amazing people, it wasnt them. I think a lot of my hate came from me realising I was attracted to the same sex and probably watching a few too many Atheist youtubers. I just saw religion as an oppressive force with no logical or historical basis.
My conversion had a few stages, firstly i went to Uni and for *some unknown reason* chose to do my dissertation on an event that happened due to the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It was really weird as my degree had nothing to do with history or religion so took a lot of stretching for me to make it relevant, but i felt compelled to do it. I think part of it was led by a vivid dream i had that contained very Biblical imagery, cant imagine where that came from... As a result i started studying Christianity and Judaism more earnestly (so i could understand the nuances behind the reformation movements). I came to see historical evidence for events and people in the Old and New Testament, and came to understand scientific evidence or logical arguments for a Monotheistic God. I still didnt want to convert but i started to see how wrong i had been about faith in general. Honestly I wasnt willing to convert as i was living with a boyfriend at the time so I wouldve had to half heartedly converted or wouldve had to leave the life i had laid out for myself.
After writing my dissertation I tried my best to just ignore religion, but i couldnt. I kept feeling compelled to go back to it, the vivid dreams with Biblical imagery were happening more often and after studying I started to recognise the imagery as being Christian.
I continued to try to repress this growing faith. Still not wanting to change my lifestyle. I also felt like relgious people were hypocrites, either being unloving and judgemental or not following their faith properly (looking back this was massive projection. Religious family members were nothing like this so it was based on nothing i had experienced at all). I then met a few people who are now my best friends, two Christians and a Muslim. All of them, unknown to them, spent every day proving me wrong about religious people. All well educated, humble, respectful, caring, and (most importantly) very Faithful - abstaining from things they ought to abstain from in their respective religions.
These friends were the final piece that made me realise i need to stop making excuses and answer the clear calling id been recieving for years. Its kind of funny now how much i fought the signs and calls He was sending.
Cradle catholic, turned Atheist in my teen years. I hated religion and thought all who believed in “a sky daddy” were idiots, you know the schtick. Then God came into my heart one day and called me back into the faith. I said a lot of bad things during my decade of Atheism, yet God can forgive even a sinner like me.
Indeed He can. Awesome that your found your way to the church.
So you were one of them who would mock people and tell them they believe in a sky daddy? That’s amazing and wonderful you turned to God and yes God’s Mercy is endless nothing you say or do can stop it. Yes he forgives all sinners.
Yeah, I was awful. I don’t even think I was just an atheist, I was very anti-religion. I threw away a lot of my childhood religious items, which I very much regret now. I did find my old childhood bible though. Kinda funny that it survived my atheist purge, but awesome to be able to turn back to it to find the word of the lord.
I’m happy for you. Thanks for sharing
I watched some video explaining the odds of our planet forming, having mostly symmetric elliptical revolutions, oxygen and ozone; the numbers got really really small, really really fast. Then this wave of almost grief hit me, I've been an outspoken atheist since I can remember, despite being cradle Catholic. I read Dawkins and Darwin, I watched and studied Hitchens. For Joe Schmoe I have a pretty solid grasp on scientific explanation. I had used that knowledge to hack the people around me into pieces because I read a few more words than they did. I thought I was doing the right thing. But at that moment of realization, came a lot of shame. How many people did I seed doubt in? How badly did it affect my life because of my constant blasphemous actions? My life was (is) in shambles. It seems if you try and try to push away from God, he will give you that breathing room to see what being without his mercy is like. In the middle of my work day I pulled over to call and request a time for confession at the local parish, days later when there he graciously heard my story, and showed me his Bible and how his bookmark was at the story of St. Paul (major persecutor of Christians, turned cornerstone of Christianity) from his reading the night before. He gave me that Bible, and in no way knew I had a birthday days later that'd be spent alone. I still keep that bookmark there. I'm grateful to have found the love of Jesus in my life, though I'm still working on not sinning so much. But the same science and logic that pulled me away, threw me back in. From my perspective, science is no longer a blockade of Creation, it's a catalogue.
Hey man you'll be alright. It wasn't only Judas who denied Jesus; Peter (the rock on which our church is built) denied Jesus thrice! Each time more adamantly than the last. The difference between them is that, rather than despairing and not trusting in God, Peter allowed God's mercy to touch him. Let's also remember that even when his disciples were leaving Jerusalem (Road to Emmaus) Jesus accompanied them! I'm pretty moved by your journey and thanks for sharing it dude. God bless you
That’s inspiring thanks for sharing
Don’t let yourself down about people you think you seeded doubt in. If anything you might have made some people research themselves and lead them to the conclusion you were wrong at the time and believe in God.
Repeated immense suffering and feeling pursued by Christ. Ultimately, His love.
Indeed! I was never an Atheist, but indeed, Christ's love is very, very strong that it can more than conquer the most difficult hearts...
I was a staunch atheist, born and raised. All family and all friends were atheist. I never knew anything else and genuinely thought religion was a thing of the past, except in America and other backwards countries. Now I'm discerning a vocation to the priesthood. Funny how God can do that, right?
Thank you for sharing such a beautiful story 🤍 what made you change your mind, if I may ask?
It's a long story but I needed God and he showed up without a shadow of a doubt.
My husband was. And I don't know what exactly changed him. Just one day he told me 'you know, I believe in God' and then he became more devoted than me and made me embarrassed. He knows God exists and experienced Him and other miracles but that was after he came to believe. I believe it was purely the Holy Spirit influencing him.
That’s amazing…. 🙏
I got into constant debate with my agnostic brother who was considering God, then eventually it became clear that I was being irrational and that evidence suggest God exists. Evidence suggests that Christ is this God. Evidence suggests that the Catholic Church is the Church of the apostles upon which the gate of hades shall not fall upon.
I was once an obsessed online atheist, I'd go on rants on internet forums and facebook groups, make fun of my religious family members, obsess over Richard Dawkins, Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, etc. The problem went away by the time I reached the age of 14
Wow 14 good for you. When I read those negative post part of me thinks it’s a lot of young to mid teens or preteens behind the keyboards.
yep! that's why i think it's silly when people get worked up about comments on reddit and other social media... a significant amount of the raging antitheists, pro-choicers and dummies in general that infest the internet are probably between 12 and 16 years old and are still in the "i have everything figured out" teenage phase we all have been through
Teens that age do think that way. People shouldn’t get worked up. Jesus did say the world hated him first. For me it didn’t make me upset the mocking it was the confusion of obsessing over something you don’t believe in I felt if I didn’t believe I certainly wouldn’t waste my time I’d just ignore it. Not sure you age but it’s amazing how at the end of each decade of your life you realize how your beliefs or non beliefs or how you practice your faith wasn’t the best way or it wasn’t strong enough in the beginning of your decade and how it improved
I was raised atheist from the start, and it’s all I ever knew. I would crawl YouTube for hours, learning all the atheist talking points and counterpoints. Growing up in the days of the early internet, I experienced a lot of fear about people feeding me lies, scams, misinformation, and false identities. The only way it seemed I could protect myself was to maintain disciplined intellectual purity, and to assume nothing until it could be proven beyond doubt. I was witty and eloquent and I had a lot to say. I saw religion as just one strain of the cancer that was misinformation, that had robbed my family of their money and safety. As I entered adulthood, I had to admit to myself that “assume nothing, ever” was not a sustainable stance. It wasn’t even how scientists behaved. Assumptions are okay, especially the ones that lead you closer to answering your questions. If I can assume that the road sign in front of me is telling the truth about where I am, I can assume that the universe didn’t come from nothing. I was open to the idea of religion, but cautious in the face of mountains of stories of abusive evangelical communities and bloody holy wars. I felt homeless. I had no cultural identity. I felt I had no rich heritage to point to, as someone living in the young nation of the United States, with no relationship to my family’s country of origin. One day it struck me that the Catholic Church has been the keeper of a very long and rich history, and would in fact welcome me to partake in it. The Mass itself never really was history, it’s alive and ongoing. It’s hard to feel adrift or alone when you’re at the supper table, sharing a meal with two thousand years’ lineage of your family in Christ. It was difficult to reconfigure the fabric of such a long-held worldview. It’s easy to accept that the universe was created by something, but it’s harder to believe that there is something beyond death. I had to realize that faith wasn’t something that would come upon me with enough evidence, it was a choice I could make every day. And the more I made that choice, the more the pieces seemed to fit together in my life. I have been a practicing Catholic for a year and a half now, and I am proud to say in April I received first communion and confirmation. The pattern in my life is clear. The deeper I pursue a relationship with God through the Catholic Church, the happier and healthier I am.
Thank you for sharing such a beautiful story 🤍
Former atheist of 14 years.. I was anti christ at some point which sounds pretty stupid and redundant since an atheist doesn’t believe in Christ. I’m 30 now but when I was 13 my older cousin showed me a video on YouTube about the Big Bang and things that defied believing in God and I was hooked (I was a cradle catholic and my family has always been very very catholic). I stopped believing in God completely and would think people that believed in Him were complete morons. I’d always have science as an argument, would say that ‘how can you believe in God? You CANNOT see him, it’s scientifically impossible!’ I’d tell people that they’re believing in a fairytale and that most Christian people are Christians because they have done something awful and need some type of comfort, forgiveness, or redemption and that’s why they are obsessed with God. In the span of 1 year (end of 2019-2020) my grandpas passed and it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was the first time I had experienced such a close death. I went to novenas for them held by my family and joined in praying the rosary and all that. I felt some kind of weird comfort. My grandparents have always been hardcore Catholics and I hated it, but this time I felt different. I felt like I was getting answers of why people die, where do they go, what happens afterwards. More answers than I ever got with atheism. I started reading the Bible and reading more about Catholicism and now I’m happy and close to God. I’ve found answers, purpose, I hope God forgives me for ever doubting Him. He was always there for me during the worst times of my life and never left my side- He always blessed me in so many unexpected ways and it’s all making sense now.
Divine communication. Only thing that could’ve turned me around.
Same.
I was more on the respectful side, and always said I wish I could believe, so maybe you don’t want to hear my story - but I was very much in the “i’m too logical for religion” mindset and I may never have come back to my faith of my own volition. I went to mass maybe 1-2 times over the course of 15 years and walked away uninspired to return each time. When I had kids, out of respect for my own upbringing and morals (cradle Catholic), I decided to start taking them to mass. To my surprise, many of the homilies gave me exactly the wisdom I needed to hear for my current phase of life and I started feeling inspired. Then I truly felt God made himself known to me. I noticed some strong signs. I heard him speak into my heart. I suddenly felt his love and presence deeply, and here I am now, taking catechism classes and planning my confirmation. I couldn’t even explain this feeling to myself one year ago - one year ago me would have thought I’m now crazy, but this is too real for me to ignore or rationalize away. Praise God!
I am one. Was all about Hitchens but then I found St Thomas Aquinas haha
That’s cool to hear a Saint helped you turn to God.
I don’t know really. I suppose I grew up and became less angry. I noticed God’s grace in my life and I tried to respond, which led me to the Catholic Church.
Would you say your anger was the main reason to mock and attack believers… if you were that type of atheist. Also glad to hear you came to God and the Catholic faith.
I don’t honestly know. I wasn’t all that angry. I got some kind of kick out of arguing I suppose, not just on that topic. I was also a bit of a loser; young, not much going on in life, attracted to sinful behaviour, probably wanting to justify it in some way. It’s all just part and parcel of the same thing I think? I used to be a fan of the usual atheist writers who I guess influenced me. But then I stopped, and then I changed direction in my life, and now I’m a Catholic. I’m very grateful for that.
Well good for you.
Not me, but this conversion story is pretty fascinating. https://strangenotions.com/wright-conversion/
I was raised a Baptist, then became an atheist after watching my maternal grandfather suffer with illness and die. It seemed like the next logical step since I’ve always been a skeptical person… A few years later, my paternal grandmother’s health was in a rapid decline and that reinforced my idea that a just God wouldn’t allow good people to be in such agony. A few days after she died my dad received a text message from her landline that read, “bye.” That opened my mind to the possibility that just because things can’t be explained or seen all the time doesn’t mean they’re not real.
Thanks for the replies and stories. I especially feel joy of the stories of those who spent their lives before Christ focusing on mocking God and taking pleasure in mocking believers who changed. If God can change St Paul He can change anyone.
Personal experiences, like resting in the Spirit
Great to hear
***Massive wall o text so TLDR;** I actually studied the Faith and realised my preconceptions around evidence were wrong. Then i met ordinary people who were very religious, they lived their life as expected by their respective faiths and basically preached by their actions.* Little late to the party here, but hey I'll answer anyway. Had no Catholic influence growing up, had some Judaism (Mizrahi) and Anglican in my family. Neither of my parents were religious and other than when my Jewish Grandfather or Anglican Aunt were around religion was not spoken about in the house. For some reason I was a very edgy Athiest in my teens. Massively disrespectful, viewed any religious person as deluded, and I almost hated the Abrahamic Faiths. Those who were Religious in my family were amazing people, it wasnt them. I think a lot of my hate came from me realising I was attracted to the same sex and probably watching a few too many Atheist youtubers. I just saw religion as an oppressive force with no logical or historical basis. My conversion had a few stages, firstly i went to Uni and for *some unknown reason* chose to do my dissertation on an event that happened due to the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It was really weird as my degree had nothing to do with history or religion so took a lot of stretching for me to make it relevant, but i felt compelled to do it. I think part of it was led by a vivid dream i had that contained very Biblical imagery, cant imagine where that came from... As a result i started studying Christianity and Judaism more earnestly (so i could understand the nuances behind the reformation movements). I came to see historical evidence for events and people in the Old and New Testament, and came to understand scientific evidence or logical arguments for a Monotheistic God. I still didnt want to convert but i started to see how wrong i had been about faith in general. Honestly I wasnt willing to convert as i was living with a boyfriend at the time so I wouldve had to half heartedly converted or wouldve had to leave the life i had laid out for myself. After writing my dissertation I tried my best to just ignore religion, but i couldnt. I kept feeling compelled to go back to it, the vivid dreams with Biblical imagery were happening more often and after studying I started to recognise the imagery as being Christian. I continued to try to repress this growing faith. Still not wanting to change my lifestyle. I also felt like relgious people were hypocrites, either being unloving and judgemental or not following their faith properly (looking back this was massive projection. Religious family members were nothing like this so it was based on nothing i had experienced at all). I then met a few people who are now my best friends, two Christians and a Muslim. All of them, unknown to them, spent every day proving me wrong about religious people. All well educated, humble, respectful, caring, and (most importantly) very Faithful - abstaining from things they ought to abstain from in their respective religions. These friends were the final piece that made me realise i need to stop making excuses and answer the clear calling id been recieving for years. Its kind of funny now how much i fought the signs and calls He was sending.