List of ex-atheists
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of people who accepted atheism for a time and then abandoned it in favor of a different philosophical or metaphysical position.
Contents |
[edit] Converts to Christianity
- Steve Beren-Former member of the Socialist Workers Party (United States) who became a Christian conservative politician.[1]
- Francis Collins-Geneticist who was an atheist until age 27, but then returned to Christianity.[2]
- Anna Haycraft-Raised in Auguste Comte's atheistic "church of humanity", but became a conservative Catholic in adulthood.[3]
- Ignace Lepp-French psychiatrist whose parents were freethinkers and who joined the Communist party at age fifteen. He broke with the party in 1937 and eventually became a Catholic priest.[4]
- C.S. Lewis-writer who was an atheist as a young man but converted to Christianity and wrote many books about his faith.[5]
- William Murray (author)-Son of Madalyn Murray O'Hair who became a Born again preacher.[6]
- Enoch Powell-Conservative Party (UK) member who converted to Anglicanism.[7]
- George R. Price-Geneticist who converted to Christianity. Later lapsed from that, but remained theistic.[8]
- Edith Stein-Phenomenologist philosopher who converted to Catholicism and became a Discalced Carmelite nun; declared a saint by John Paul II.[9]
- Lee Strobel-Self described former atheist and Christian writer.
[edit] Converts to Islam
- Jeffrey Lang-Mathematician who adopted atheism at 18, but is now Muslim.[10]
[edit] Other Ex-atheists
- John Dobson (astronomer)-Atheist who joined the Vedanta Society.[11]
- Antony Flew-Became a non-religious deist.[12]
- Moses Hess-Socialist philosopher and Left Hegelian who first influenced Karl Marx in his criticism of religion, but who later tried to combine the pantheism of Baruch Spinoza with Hegelianism.[13]
[edit] Web sources
- ^ Seattle Times
- ^ Sunday Times
- ^ Telegraph
- ^ Time Magazine from July 19, 1963
- ^ PBS special
- ^ Austin Chronicle
- ^ The Guardian's obituary of Powell
- ^ University of Bielefeld
- ^ University of Chicago
- ^ His book "Struggling to Surrender
- ^ In an interview at Space.com he states "So I became an atheist, a belligerent atheist. If anybody started a conversation about the subject, I was a belligerent atheist."
- ^ BBC Interview where he states "What I was converted to was the existence of an Aristotelian God, and Aristotle's God had no interest in human affairs at all."
- ^ Cambridge University Press, page 15
