I ran across an article on msn.com that was titled From Skeptic to Believer: 22 Famous Atheists Who Found Faith. While I cannot say that each person has accepted Jesus as Savior, some in the list definitely have based on their personal testimonies. Some of the names we would recognize. Others, not so much. Consider some of the more unknowns.
Dr. Francis Collins, the former director of the National Institutes of Health and leader of the Human Genome Project, was led to Jesus while doctoring a patient with severe heart disease. While an inpatient in the hospital, she began having severe chest pain. After she got through it, she began telling the doctor about her faith in Jesus. She was thankful for the doctors and nurses God had put in her path but gave the credit to God and her faith in Jesus. She expounded for a while on her faith before turning to Dr. Collins and asking, “What do you believe, doctor?” This got the doctor thinking, and he realized that as an atheist, he had arrived at a conclusion without ever considering the evidence. This was a scientific faux pax. He had failed to consider the most important question: Is there a God? As he studied, researched, and asked a pastor blasphemous questions, the answers eventually resulted in his conversion. Dr. Collins proclaims, “I am now a follower of Jesus.”1
Dr. Rosalind Picard, a pioneer in the field of affective computing at MIT, grew up in an atheistic family and believed that Christianity and religion were for people who didn’t think. She met some Christians that she describes as “smart, wonderful people.” At first, they invited her to church, but she had no desire to attend. They changed their approach and said, “Maybe it matters most not whether you go to church but what you believe.” Upon asking if she had ever read the Bible, Rosalind realized that she hadn’t. Considering herself smart and educated, she concluded since the Bible is the number one best selling book of all times, she should probably read it. They encouraged her to read Proverbs. These short passages challenged her because they provided truth and wisdom in small, intelligent segments that helped her realize that this “book” was really special. This prompted her to read the Bible as a whole. As she did, God began stirring her heart. Then, she thought she should study other religions to make an educated decision. The conclusion? The evidence for Christianity was very powerful and greater than what she was finding in the other religious traditions. Over years, her faith grew from believing in God to eventually believing in Jesus and accepting Him as her Savior.2
To this list, we can add Lee Strobel, an investigative journalist for the Chicago
Tribune, who set out to use his skills as a journalist to disprove God and Christianity. In the process, he was the one proven wrong and he called out to Jesus to be saved.
There’s Kirsten Powers, a political analyst and columnist who had been an atheist all her life. However, she met and started dating a Christian man who invited her to church. As she heard about Jesus and began studying the truths of Scripture, it wasn’t long before her atheism was transformed into full belief in Jesus.
“Holly Ordway, a professor of English and a respected apologist, was once a committed atheist who prided herself on her rational approach to life. She viewed religion as a collection of comforting myths with no basis in reality.”3 As she looked at the wealth of Christianity literature, especially the Bible, her heart softened to the Lord and she gave her life to Jesus.
A devotional like this can’t be shared without mentioning the once-teen-heartthrob, Kirk Cameron, from Growing Pains. His story of coming to Christ while in the midst of Hollywood and how he wanted scripts changed to keep him from becoming a sex symbol is powerful. Hollywood has essentially disavowed him, but this hasn’t deterred Cameron from finding a different platform from which to share about Jesus and his faith. Kirk’s work with Ray Comfort’s evangelistic ministry and now, as founder of American Campfire Revival, continues to spread the evangelistic message of the Gospel.
You will notice that these are highly educated, talented individuals. These aren’t non-thinkers. God is not threatened by thinking. In fact, the great evangelist of the New Testament was a thinker. It is said of Paul in Acts 17:1-2, “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: (2) And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures.” Acts 18:4, 19 shares the same thing. “And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks… And he came to Ephesus, and left them there: but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.”
Reason: to think, ponder, resolve in the mind, converse, discuss, and debate.
As believers, the challenges to Christianity, God, and our faith cannot be received as an insult. We must understand where they are coming from and not be afraid to present the claims of Christ. If we are stumped by something said to us, don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know.” Honest intellectualism doesn’t try to give someone a snow job! Go find the answer and while you’re searching, encourage the person to read the Bible for themselves and do what these atheists did.
In closing, we need practice 1 Peter 3:15. “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”
1https://biologos.org/resources/francis-collins-a-testimony
2https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abkn6cau8lc&t=90s
3https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/from-skeptic-to-believer-22-famous-atheists-who-found-faith/ss-AA1oYROc?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=b8c8c26d971949d0922f8ec6333b5f56&ei=25 #image=16
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