Converted because of RF

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Nope. I continue to wait with worms on my tonque ("baited breath," get it? misspelling deliberate) for the argument that convinces me of the existence of any deity.

Grievously, that's never happened, but even worse, nobody has actually tried. They've just quoted scripture, which is evidence of nothing except that some people wrote some stuff.

 

[janesix]

Nope. I continue to wait with worms on my tonque ("baited breath," get it? misspelling deliberate) for the argument that convinces me of the existence of any deity.

Grievously, that's never happened, but even worse, nobody has actually tried. They've just quoted scripture, which is evidence of nothing except that some people wrote some stuff.

An argument probably won't convince you. Have you really searched? Do you want to?

 

[Sunstone]

Atheidm is not a religion.

Shsssh! Quiet! We've been trying to
get the tax breaks for ages!

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

This is a question to satisfy my curiosity. Has anyone here converted to another faith primarily because of discussions you're had or read about here on RF. With so much proselytizing going on, I wonder if any of it has been at all successful.

If you don't feel comfortable admitting it, that's fine too.

It certainly wasn't the only factor, but for me, proselytizers and apologists had the opposite effect than they intended.

When I got here 12 years ago, I was a self-described agnostic who was generally ambivalent - and fairly ignorant - of religion. Today, I'm a self-described atheist and ardent secularist who generally takes a dim view of most religion.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

An argument probably won't convince you. Have you really searched? Do you want to?

I'm 73 years old. I've spent a lifetime REALLY LOOKING at this question, along with many other philosophical questions. And the answer has ALWAYS been, based on any real correlation between the world I know, and the world described by those who think there are gods -- that there ain't any.

You yourself, in another post, admitted you can't show me God, because you're still looking. Why are you looking for God? Why not look for anything else you've never had any evidence? Is it because you think you are supposed to?

 

[Vinayaka]

It certainly wasn't the only factor, but for me, proselytizers and apologists had the opposite effect than they intended.

When I got here 12 years ago, I was a self-described agnostic who was generally ambivalent - and fairly ignorant - of religion. Today, I'm a self-described atheist and ardent secularist who generally takes a dim view of most religion.

Yes, that's the effect that proselytising has me, as well. I suspect you and I are not at all alone. It can certainly be damaging to curiosity.

 

[Vinayaka]

Nope, once a Baha'i, always a Baha'i, for 50 years now.

The only other religion I ever considered was atheism, but I did not think God would be too keen on that.

The question in the OP was directed at those who had converted, not those who hadn't.

 

[Audie]

Yes, that's the effect that proselytising has me, as well. I suspect you and I are not at all alone. It can certainly be damaging to curiosity.

When they try it on me I just answer in Chinese and they get discoursged

 

[SomeRandom]

Matthew 23:13-15...
“13 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut up the Kingdom of the heavens before men; for you yourselves do not go in, neither do you permit those on their way in to go in. . . .
15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you travel over sea and dry land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him a subject for Ge·henʹna twice as much so as yourselves.”

So how do Jesus’ words fit if the Jews did not proselytise?

Maybe they waited until someone asked about their hairstyles? And then seized the opportunity to make the pitch

 

[Brickjectivity]

With so much proselytizing going on, I wonder if any of it has been at all successful.

Staff here actively discourage any proselytizing through moderation (edits, deletions, warnings and restrictions). That goes for all including atheists. There are strict limits that require that religious related statements be put forward as opinions and not facts as well as denunciations of religious beliefs from all directions.

This is a question to satisfy my curiosity. Has anyone here converted to another faith primarily because of discussions you're had or read about here on RF.

This and previous forums have contributed to my understanding that people can't listen to other people. Its not just pig headedness or willful ignorance or bad disposition. They can't. Unless its something they come up with on their own, possibly through Socratic method or some other internal process they can't. In a sense every religion must be a revealed religion, but it goes beyond religion. People generally can't listen.

 

[firedragon]

What is atheidm?

Its atheidom. A country.

 

[Deidre]

Close to when I first joined here, I had been an atheist...mainly wandering and seeking, at that time. I explored Islam for a time then, some here might recall. Luciferianism also intrigued me after that, too. RF was instrumental in some of that, but I didn't ''convert.''

 

[QuestioningMind]

Since absence of evidence is Not evidence of absence, than couldn't atheism be a religion in that it adheres to the view that there is No God, and since this can Not be proven, it is the exercise of faith in the non-existence of God (?)

Atheism isn't the claim that there is no god, it's simply a lack of belief that there is a god.

 

[SigurdReginson]

These forums have definitely been influential in my own path, as talking to folks here has been enlightening. That said, there's also been a few conversations that have killed a few too many of my braincells, too!

 

[oldbadger]

This is a question to satisfy my curiosity. Has anyone here converted to another faith primarily because of discussions you're had or read about here on RF. With so much proselytizing going on, I wonder if any of it has been at all successful.

If you don't feel comfortable admitting it, that's fine too.

You got me there! I read the title and thought 'Bloomin' Heck....... What's he become!?'

Yes. In a way. I visited RF a long time ago, further back than my present membership shows. I was an agnostic interested in learning more about Historical Jesus and back then there were several HJ followers all thrashing out various debates about HJ.

Being on RF is how I started to read more about Deism, and that is how I decided that I am a kind of Deist. So.... 'Yes' ,,, I got 'converted' by reading about Deism on RF.

 

[Rival]

You got me there! I read the title and thought 'Bloomin' Heck....... What's he become!?'

Yes. In a way. I visited RF a long time ago, further back than my present membership shows. I was an agnostic interested in learning more about Historical Jesus and back then there were several HJ followers all thrashing out various debates about HJ.

Being on RF is how I started to read more about Deism, and that is how I decided that I am a kind of Deist. So.... 'Yes' ,,, I got 'converted' by reading about Deism on RF.

I'd like to know more about what moved you to deism specifically and what position you take on the HJ debate.

 

[oldbadger]

I'd like to know more about what moved you to deism specifically and what position you take on the HJ debate.

I have always felt that everything must be a part of God.
I never felt that humans have some special 'deal' with God.
As I read more about Deism I then began to search further afield.....
Slowly I came to the belief that God is beyond just universal, in to Multi-universal and probably bigger than that. Vast.
Although we are very very small our substance is still a part of the whole.
We get no special treatment before or after our lifetimes but still, every part of us is constantly alive...... our atoms are like tiny solar systems. Nothing is dead.

HJ:
Jesus was a real person. He joined the Baptist's movement which was working against a totally corrupt Temple and Priesthood. He took it on after the Baptist's arrest/death carrying it forward for about one year. I don't think he died after that last week in Jerusalem. His name and reputation became spun in to Chruistuianity by Paul and others.

 

[Heyo]

Since absence of evidence is Not evidence of absence, than couldn't atheism be a religion in that it adheres to the view that there is No God, and since this can Not be proven, it is the exercise of faith in the non-existence of God (?)

And we worship by listening to our prophets Richard Dawkins sermons on YouTube, observe our religious diet (eating babies) and at least those living in the US congregate every year to celebrate Ark Encounter Protest.

 

[Vouthon]

Thinking about the question posed in the OP more deeply, I'm personally well acquainted with only four RF'ers who have substantially changed their religious beliefs down the years while being on the forum.

@Rival herself, obviously, having converted to Noahidism / on a pathway towards Judaism from Christianity (and a few other faiths in-between, her longest being Zoroastrianism but also briefer forays into the likes of paganism, atheism and Luciferianism), @Treks who has gone from being a neo-pagan, then almost a decade of "on-off" affiliation with Sikhism (in which she struggled to relate to the religion culturally and flirted with Unitarian Universalism) but is now a convinced Protestant Christian, @metis who was a proselyte reform Jew with Buddhist tendencies when I first met him but has since converted to Catholicism and also @Conscious thoughts who has gone from Falun Gong (if I recall rightly) to Islam and Sufism.

I'm not sure I know of any others beyond those four, at least with whom I'm very well acquainted.

Such "paradigm shifts" in worldview would seem to be rare things, overall.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I didn't come here identifying as Hindu, even though I was aware that my worldview was in line with Hindu philosophy, mainly because I didn't want to offend those that were culturally Hindu. In fact, there is a discussion about it somewhere on this forum. I had previously identified as a pantheist of the nondual variety with heavy Theosophist tendencies.

So essentially, my views didn't change as a result of participating on RF, but after talking to our Hindu members, what I labeled myself did.

Or maybe they tricked me into identifying as Hindu. Maybe their proselytizing is so utterly veiled, nobody has yet to notice it.

Would you consider this conversion?