Why Christians believe

The following are personal stories, or testimonies, of how atheists, agnostics and/or intellectuals came to believe in Christianity. Most links are offsite.

Please note that I am no longer adding testimonies to this page (mainly due to time constraints).

Prominent people

Josh McDowell

Dr. Hugh Ross

Founder of Reasons to Believe

Hard-core atheists/anti-Christians

G. Zeinelde Jordan

Conversion of an active atheist and member of American Atheists

Josh McDowell

A.S.A. Jones

A "devout atheist for over twenty years" finds there is worth in the Bible

Rev. R. G. Rindfuss

Atheist who tried to "free people from religious slavery" goes to church and later becomes a minister

Traumatic life situations

Vicki

A young woman finds that only God can help her overcome an abusive childhood

Joni Eareckson Tada

Paralyzed from the neck down as a teenager, Joni overcame her anger at God

Drugs/addictions

Eric Knickerbocker

Students

Art student

Philosophy major at Drake

Philosophy major at Notre Dame

Student activist at Stanford

Trumpet player at Boston Conservatory

By age

The person's age at conversion is given in parentheses.

Tucker Russell (16)

John Jeremiah (21)

Eric Knickerbocker (23)

Vicki (26)

A young woman finds that only God can help her overcome an abusive childhood

Paul Bird (34)

Cynical atheist converts at age 34 and describes his subsequent life in ministry

John Bakas (38)

An atheist converts at age 38 after researching philosophy, evolution and Christianity

By occupation

Artist

Astronomer

Ethics professor

Doctor

Lawyer

Mathematics professor

By country (outside U.S./Canada)

Austria

New Zealand

Trinidad

U.K.
    Antony Solomon

Marilyn Adamson: "I studied the philosophies of Dostoyevsky, Sartre, Nietsche, Socrates and others - looking for an overriding, motivating purpose to my life. Every few weeks I would 'try out' a new philosophy to see if it could work. But I found these philosophies didn't make sense or they simply weren't useful in actual life situations."

S. B.: "Then it happened! There was a violent rushing wind from above...There was no wind outside and as the doors and windows were closed there was no draught. It was like a scene out of Pentecost!"

John Bakas: "I was convinced that there was no God in the first place. I didn't stay awake at night pondering these matters. At least not until I was 35 years old."

Paul Bird: "I concluded that if there was a God, He would have to love (and care), but since I wasn't aware of any evidence of God's love, there really could not be a God after all. So I became an atheist."

Greg Bond: "An atheist until 1990, I came to a belief in God because I am an alcoholic, and one traumatic night He removed the obsession to drink from me. I prayed to the God that I didn't even believe in (and told Him so, too!) because I had nowhere else to turn, and He immediately answered my prayer."

J. Budziszewski: "This practical nihilism was linked with a practical atheism...The upshot was that although God might exist, He would be irrelevant. I couldn't quite rule out the existence of God, but I thought I could rule out the existence of a God that mattered."

John N. Clayton: "What was happening to me was the same thing that Lord Kelvin, a very famous British scientist, described in his writings when he made the statement, 'If you study science deep enough and long enough it will force you to believe in God.'"

John Culp: "The cardiologist and neurologist came on the double. An agnostic and a Hindu, they both said, 'It's a miracle! I can't explain it otherwise.'"

Daz: "When I came to adolescence I decided that life would be easier to bear if I cut out all feelings and contact with other people...I had achieved my goal: my life was empty of any emotions or meaningful contact with others. It sucked."

Ian Dale: "I became obsessed with winning awards and fame through my art, hoping one day even to rival Michelangelo or Picasso in importance. That would be my immortality, and I thought it would solve all my problems. Yet with all the success I had had already, I was never happy."

B. Hearn: "For the first time in my life I decided to look outside of myself for hope, knowing that nothing in this world could really help me, I turned to God. There's no doubt that one could formulate a reasonable earthly explanation for my actions. But what happens after your assent is the amazing part - and that must be experienced."

John Jeremiah: "I finally came to the conclusion that I was an agnostic...And this is where my journey began. I wasn't satisfied with not knowing the answer to the questions of all questions. I had to know whether or not there was a god. If a god indeed existed, in what way should I relate to that god?"

G. Zeinelde Jordan: "Christianity repulsed me. I was so repulsed I chose to battle it...
"LaHaye did not convince me a God existed, but he clearly depicted I believed what I believed merely because I had been indoctrinated."

A.S.A. Jones: "If my mind was capable of accepting interpretations that allowed the [Bible] to make sense, then what was it in me that wanted it not to make sense? This book was reading me as surely as I was reading it."

Eric Knickerbocker: "Would I have chosen Christianity? No. It went against my every instinct, against my every grain. But I have nonetheless been transformed."

Makhonyola: "I received a letter from my older brother...Wasn't this the same guy that tried again and again to convince my mother that we didn't need religion?"

Ralph Martin: "'Okay, okay, okay,' I said in exasperation. 'I'll go. But I warn you: I am not going to pretend to have a religious experience just to make you happy. I know what's going to happen. You're all going to sit around and sing songs and be nice to each other, and you're going to call it God. Well, I'm not going to call it God. I'm going to call it clever group dynamics. I'll go, Phil, but I won't sacrifice my intellectual integrity.'"

Josh McDowell: "I thought most Christians were walking idiots...But these people challenged me over and over. Finally, I accepted their challenge. I did it out of pride to refute them, thinking there were no facts. I assumed there wasn't any evidence a person could evaluate."

Arnold Neumaier: "I still had the idea of God as a human construction; but Jesus' construction must have been particularly powerful, and I set out to discover what it was, strip it from its religious superstitions, and integrate the essence into my life. At least that was my plan."

Rev. R. G. Rindfuss: "I...stepped outside just in time to see my youngest son toddle across the grass and sit down on top of the biggest fire ant mound I have ever seen. Randy is highly allergic to fire ant bites...If he gets bitten enough times, he'll die."

Hugh Ross: "I used the facts of history and science to test each of the 'holy' books. Initially my task was easy. After only a few hours (in some cases less) of reading, I could find one or more statements clearly at odds with the facts of history and science...I found the Bible noticeably different."

Tucker Russell: "This new worldview...allowed me to believe in a god that was near to me and ever-present, yet it also allowed me to adhere to this world and its pleasures, with no real accountability. It seemed like everything you could want, and I followed religiously (and excelled among my contemporaries) for the next three years. But deep down I was always dissatisfied. I know now that I did not actually want something that would make me feel good, I wanted what I knew to be actual truth."

Paul Smith: "Many things permanently changed inside me that morning, and so I never became able to rationalize my experience away as anything but a genuine encounter with the Creator of the universe."

Antony Solomon: "I had rejected all the 'proofs of God's existence' - they did not convince me. But this did."

Joni Eareckson Tada: "I believed in God, but I was angry with Him...How can permanent, lifelong paralysis be a part of His loving plan for me? Unless I found answers, I didn't see how this God could be worthy of my trust."

Vicki: "I became very agitated with God and threw the Bible to the floor. I just didn't understand why I wasn't well, if he had healed this guy so long ago."

Webmaster of BibleDesk.com: "My idea was to find out if the Bible was really true. Indeed, if I could find one contradiction, one error, or anything in the Bible that was not true, then that would be all that was needed to disregard it...Finally, I had to admit after spending almost countless hours of research - I was wrong."

Heather Williams: "I believed in the power within me to make a significant difference in the world....Yet, the more I tried to change the world, the more frustrated I became. I confronted bureaucracy, apathy, and...sin."

Other testimonies

My testimony (on site)

Links to other testimony sites