Former Atheist and Dawkins Follower Becomes Christian – Post #8 of 2011

Post Author: Bill Pratt

Former atheist Richard Morgan describes his journey to Christianity in a fascinating article at The Christian Post. Morgan participated heavily in the Richard Dawkins website forums, but what he found there turned him away from atheism to Christianity.

Here is an excerpt:

More than the religious debate, it was his interest in evolution that led him to follow Richard Dawkins. Upon finding the author’s actual website, Morgan was excited to communicate with scientists and philosophers who could offer more insight into evolution.

But rather than discussing the nature of evolution in the “oasis of clear thinking,” Morgan was horrified to discover in his first forum that more than half of the people devoted their time saying rude things about believers using extremely foul language.

Eventually Morgan witnessed a Scottish pastor, David Robertson, being attacked and abused constantly on the forum.

“I don’t know how many hours he must have spent just replying very calmly and politely to people who were sending out the most vilest insults and criticisms,” Morgan recalled. “He just kept coming back and occasionally with a few words of Scripture thrown into his general discourse.”

Please go read the article to find out what happened next…..

Tags: David Robertson, Richard Dawkins, Richard Morgan

This entry was posted by Bill Pratt on Wednesday, December 21st, 2011 at 9:00 am and is filed under Atheism, Top Ten Posts of 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About The Author

Bill Pratt

Comments

http://www.apologetics315.com Brian

The interview with Morgan can be found here:
http://apologetics315.blogspot.com/2011/03/interview-former-atheist-richard-morgan.html
Todd

Bill,

I’ve seen this kind of abuse before on a lot of forums and would agree with Morgan’s assessment:

Excerpt from christianpost.com:
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It was then that Morgan realized he did not want to be a part of these people. “I’m not condemning all atheists,” he clarified in the interview. “I’m talking about anonymous atheists on internet discussion boards and the messages they express which are extremely negative, puerile, [and] full of hate…”
______________________________________

I’ve encountered plenty of this type of vitriol on the discussion forums and chat programs that I use coming from both christians and atheists. Unfortunately, I think this type of abuse is nearly unstoppable unless someone constantly monitors all communications, which is nearly impossible when you have thousands of posts coming in daily.

Personally, I ignore the personal attacks, admonish those that do it to others, and look for forums where I can debate calmly and rationally.

Excerpt from christianpost.com:
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In response to Morgan’s post, Robertson, the “resident fruitcake” at the Dawkins’ forums, asked him two questions which subsequently changed his life: 1) Why don’t you believe in God? 2) What could make you believe in God?

Dismissing the first question as dumb, Robertson’s initial reaction to the second question was “certainly not proof and evidence.”

At that moment, Morgan’s instinctive response conjured up to his memory, probably from his previous Mormon days, the verse, “We love because he first loved us.” And in that instant, Morgan understood the expression “amazing grace.”

“I was certain without having any rational explanation that God existed, that he loved me without waiting for me to love him, that he loved me unconditionally without waiting for me to deserve it.”
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To me this is not a rational answer to either question. I think the first question has merit and should not be dismissed as “dumb”. To answer the second question with “certainly not proof and evidence” seems a bit illogical to me as well, but fits with the definition of faith.

In the end, it would seem that Morgan converted to Christianity because he found a social group that would accept him and that he found acceptable.
http://sandwichesforsale.blogspot.com DagoodS

As coincidence would have it, I interacted with Richard Morgan at the premier radio forums shortly after his conversion. (Second conversion?).

He was remarkably indistinct about any intellectual reasoning for accepting Christianity, rather he insisted (like this article touched upon) having had a “Damascus Road” experience where he experienced God’s love. Did not seem very well-informed for the intellectual reasoning behind Christianity.

Its fine that Richard Morgan converted to Christianity because of an emotional experience—what I find interesting is how many Christians find an equal transformation to non-theistic belief to be either 1) disingenuous or 2) illegitimate.

In other words, if an atheist converts to Christianity (like Richard Morgan) because of an emotional reaction that is A-OK; but if a Christian deconverts because of emotional trauma or church abuse, that is not a “genuine” or “legitimate” reason to deconvert.

Very double-standard.
Bill Pratt

Dagoods,
Every conversion or de-conversion involves emotion, will, and intellect. There are no conversions which are purely intellectual – Spock only exists in Star Trek.
JH

Wonderful story. I listened to the whole interview and cried…my son is an atheist, but I continuously pray for his salvation through a miracle like this.
Janieh4

Thank you. It was great.

Tough Questions Answered

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