From Atheism to Belief

Have a quick read of this post first to get an idea of how this conversation got started...

- Jake

Hey Bro,

I hope you are ready to be called out in this post. Don't worry, no embarrassing childhood stories or anything like that. I'll save those for a later time. :) But either way, you've been warned...

So there are a lot of themes and arguments Collins brings up in chapter 1. He lays out one of the heavy influences in his conversion were the writings of CS Lewis, and inparticular "the  Moral Law" argument. We have already chatted at length on this (http://www.presenceabsence.com/2010/07/morals.html), so I'm not going to bring this up again. Even though I don't think you have put a solid case against it yet :)

Even though I know this quote is going to make you cringe, I'm going to quote it anyway. Collins said, "this Moral Law shone its bright white light into the recesses of my childish atheism, and demanded a serious consideration of its origin. Was this God looking back at me?" (p. 29)

It seems as though Collins, a distinguished scientist, spent several years of his life taking a deep look at his atheist roots and found the evidence (for atheism) to be unconvincing. 

Here comes the callout: After being questioned definitively over the precepts of the Moral Law argument, your response was:

Jake:

yeh sorry I’m not sold...

Jake:

I’m pretty sure such a thing does not exist

You may very well think that, but I still don't think I've seen a thorough examination from you of your own set of beliefs. You also haven't been able (or given the chance to maybe?) to discuss your influences or upbringing as it relates to your beliefs.

You have mentioned one story to me about your experience at the supermarket (did we blog that?), but that's about all I've heard. I also think I remember you telling me that you didn't have any thing that sparked your atheistic thoughts and that you just kind of came to it on your own. to which I think is like a musician saying he's never heard music before, and then writes a symphony.

So I'm extremely curious (as I hope everyone else is at this point), what is the origin of your atheism? Where did it come from? What influenced you? And what experiences drew you to believe what you believe now? Collins seemed to think through his pretty methodically. What about you?

Here's your chance to explain.

Not apologizing for the call out by the way....you've got the next chapter so feel free to have at it :)

Love you bro,

Brenton