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Look Who's a Believer Now
Wall Street Journal ^ | May 29, 2009 | TIMOTHY LARSEN

Posted on 05/29/2009 10:00:26 AM PDT by inflorida

Have you ever heard the one about the Christian who started to study calculus and ended up losing his faith? Of course you have. Such "conversion" to atheism is supposed to be the story of all modern, thinking people. But imagine it happening the other way around. Moreover, imagine the convert being a well-informed, public intellectual who had long made it his business to argue that faith is irrational?

Just such a conversion has happened to A.N. Wilson, the 58-year-old British biographer, novelist and man of letters. He was once an observant Anglican and, later, a Roman Catholic, but in the 1980s he lost his faith and began skewering the supposed delusions of the faithful. His antifaith stance was expressed in books such as "God's Funeral" (1999) and "Jesus: A Life" (1992). A few weeks ago, however, Mr. Wilson confessed that Christ had risen indeed. He attributed this to "the confidence I have gained with age." He now says he believes that atheists are like "people who have no ear for music or who have never been in love."

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: anwilson; bornagain; christians; convert
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1 posted on 05/29/2009 10:00:26 AM PDT by inflorida
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To: inflorida

Sounds like Mr. Wilson is finally comprehending the mortality of his physical being, and is hedging his bets on the destiny for his soul.


2 posted on 05/29/2009 10:03:50 AM PDT by brownsfan (Kool aid comes in two new flavors: Hope and Change.)
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To: inflorida

faith is a hard thing to have.


3 posted on 05/29/2009 10:04:17 AM PDT by Vaquero ("an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: inflorida

If God can convert Paul on the road to Damascus, he can convert anyone.


4 posted on 05/29/2009 10:05:29 AM PDT by crghill (You can't put a condom on your soul.)
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To: inflorida

Is he still selling his anti-faith books?
Is he planning on writing a new one?


5 posted on 05/29/2009 10:05:37 AM PDT by Safrguns
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To: brownsfan
...and is hedging his bets

yeah it sounds like it, don't it.

6 posted on 05/29/2009 10:05:52 AM PDT by Vaquero ("an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: inflorida
Have you ever heard the one about the Christian who started to study calculus and ended up losing his faith?

No, I haven't.

In fact -- there is no possible connection between studying calculus and questions of faith.

What a loopy proposition!

7 posted on 05/29/2009 10:06:52 AM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: Vaquero
faith is a hard thing to have.

Faith is like a muscle. It can be damaged through abuse and will waste away through neglect.

8 posted on 05/29/2009 10:07:43 AM PDT by TChris (There is no freedom without the possibility of failure.)
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To: BenLurkin

I prayed to God when I studied Calculus.


9 posted on 05/29/2009 10:10:20 AM PDT by CaptainK (...please make it stop. Shake a can of pennies at it.)
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To: inflorida
Have you ever heard the one about the Christian who started to study calculus and ended up losing his faith?

Damn, I've always blamed algebra..

10 posted on 05/29/2009 10:10:40 AM PDT by Riodacat (Legum servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus.)
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To: Vaquero

Atheists who “do the right things” are idiots by their own definition. If there is not God, then there is no right or wrong and doing unselfish things for a world that will eventually forget you ever existed is stupid.


11 posted on 05/29/2009 10:10:53 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Socialism is the belief that most people are better off if everyone was equally poor and miserable.)
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To: Vaquero; brownsfan

“hedging his bets”.

Pascal’s wager.

I think C.S. Lewis first set out to “prove” there was no God. He came up with a different answer than he thought.
A lawyer by the name of Josh McDowell (?) set out to prove, using legal/courtroom style justice that the Resurrection was false. He too came up with a different answer and wrote a very detailed and compelling book “Evidence Demands a Verdict”, and became a prolific Christian writer.

I imagine the list goes on and on.


12 posted on 05/29/2009 10:11:52 AM PDT by 21twelve (Drive Reality out with a pitchfork if you want , it always comes back.)
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To: TChris
Faith is like a muscle.

Faith is a hormone storm. It depends on emotion to survive.

13 posted on 05/29/2009 10:13:30 AM PDT by Glenn (Free Venezuela!)
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To: inflorida
He now says he believes that atheists are like "people who have no ear for music or who have never been in love."

Nice metaphors though.

14 posted on 05/29/2009 10:14:49 AM PDT by denydenydeny ("I'm sure this goes against everything you've been taught, but right and wrong do exist"-Dr House)
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To: CaptainK
I prayed to God when I studied Calculus.

LOL! I thought the same thing!

15 posted on 05/29/2009 10:15:44 AM PDT by Talisker (When you find a turtle on top of a fence post, you can be damn sure it didn't get there on it's own.)
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To: TChris
don't get me started on either torn muscles or atrophied muscles....I have had to deal with both.

as far as faith???

I dunno....10 years of parochial school and 40+years later and I am still looking....its gotta be here somewhere.

16 posted on 05/29/2009 10:16:10 AM PDT by Vaquero ("an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: inflorida
Have you ever heard the one about the Christian who started to study calculus and ended up losing his faith? Of course you have.

Actually, no I hadn't. And Anyone whose faith is so fragile that he would lose it over such a small issue as mathematics didn't have faith to begin with. Like those dolts who were sure that the Davinci Code or Angels and Demons would result in Christians walking away from church, they obviously have no real idea what they were talking about.

17 posted on 05/29/2009 10:16:11 AM PDT by theDentist (qwerty ergo typo : i type, therefore i misspelll)
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To: brownsfan
Exactly. The article said: He attributed this to “the confidence I have gained with age.”

Seems like he knows at age 58 years old that his time is getting shorter. What is sickening is these people in their younger age spew their atheist nonsense. They often belittle people of faith. I doubt he will now write a book about faith.

18 posted on 05/29/2009 10:16:13 AM PDT by Frantzie
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To: inflorida

To me math and science is how we explain God’s creativity, in terms we can understand.


19 posted on 05/29/2009 10:17:09 AM PDT by skully (EEEWWW!! Who's carbon footprint do I smell ??!!!)
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To: Vaquero

faith is a hard thing to have.

It’s even harder to keep


20 posted on 05/29/2009 10:17:42 AM PDT by skully (EEEWWW!! Who's carbon footprint do I smell ??!!!)
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