Are there any Atheists that have converted to a religion because they had a religious experience? (America, faith)

[Ellis Bell]

Originally Posted by GCSTroop

Yes I suppose the lack of something greater could be misleading. I've always wondered how people (enmasse) would react if they found out definitively that there was no such thing as God.

The "Doubting Thomas of the bible had to see Jesus to believe He existed, that he had rose on the third day. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that one day, you will know whatsa, whatsa. I have an atheist daughter. I believe in a power beyond all powers. Little do I worry as in no need too.

He showed himself to me in a way there was no doubt left to my imagination. IT HAPPENS. The Lord takes care of all, in His time, not ours.

[Tzaphkiel]

I did not consider myself an atheist, and I had acknowledged the Creator of the Universe, and practiced prayer as a way to improve the quality of my daily life, and had ongoing dialogue with a number of friendly helpers in non-physical form, from a wide variety of spiritual traditions

What came as a big surprise to me one day out of the blue was when, in answer to my question about what is the next step in my spiritual growth, give me an action step (I'm a really practical person) and this particular meditation was structured around receiving a symbol as an answer, and then to work with that symbol, and what it represents.

Well, cut to the chase, the symbol I received was a cross, which just cracked me up because I don't do Christianity, I don't read the bible, and I had never had much to do at all with the big J dude. However, I do trust the messages I receive in prayer and meditation, and so I began acquainting myself with the Christ. I still don't call myself a Christian, but the Christ is now in the cast of characters I go to regularly for assistance and help and comfort and all the goodies in life!

[GCSTroop]

Originally Posted by actonbell

The "Doubting Thomas of the bible had to see Jesus to believe He existed, that he had rose on the third day. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that one day, you will know whatsa, whatsa. I have an atheist daughter. I believe in a power beyond all powers. Little do I worry as in no need too.

He showed himself to me in a way there was no doubt left to my imagination. IT HAPPENS. The Lord takes care of all, in His time, not ours.

Yes that's all a very nice story but to me it's all a story. Again, the only evidence I have to go by as far as the "Doubting Thomas" is concerned is the Bible itself. I don't just believe a book because it says I should, nor do I believe it because it says I should because it says it's the word of God.

With that being said, and I've said this before, I take no issue with picking and choosing certain parts of the Bible to adhere to in life. I don't believe Jesus was anything more than a man (and I have my doubts about Jesus existing at all, but that's still up in the air). I don't believe in God. I don't believe that any story in the Old Testament bears any weight, etc.. etc... Regardless, there are some things in the Bible that I DO like.

For example: I Corinthians 13:7 is a good one.

[Ellis Bell]

Originally Posted by GCSTroop

Yes that's all a very nice story but to me it's all a story. Again, the only evidence I have to go by as far as the "Doubting Thomas" is concerned is the Bible itself. I don't just believe a book because it says I should, nor do I believe it because it says I should because it says it's the word of God.

With that being said, and I've said this before, I take no issue with picking and choosing certain parts of the Bible to adhere to in life. I don't believe Jesus was anything more than a man (and I have my doubts about Jesus existing at all, but that's still up in the air). I don't believe in God. I don't believe that any story in the Old Testament bears any weight, etc.. etc... Regardless, there are some things in the Bible that I DO like.

For example: I Corinthians 13:7 is a good one.

LOVE
Question: Where does the wind come from and when it blows, where does it go? Simple question, simple answer...

[bigstu]

Originally Posted by Travelling fella

Well now you know one

I don't know if I was really an atheist, it was like this, I was raised roman catholic, and I never really identified with the religion, my fathers weren't devout followers of it so they never took me to church or cared much about it, but they are "catholic" if they are asked.

My grandmother however was much more religious, and she made me go to church with her, which I absolutely hated, I always refused to go, and I even told her that I'd stop visiting her if she forced me to go.

I also remember that when I told my friends that I was an atheist they were absolutely shocked, (this was when I was about 10 years old), they always told me, how come? you are going to hell if you don't believe in God man, you need to change, I better don't tell my parents or they won't let me be around you and the usual stuff.

By peer pressure my mom took me to cathecism, because her friends and family started to tell her, how come that your child is not gonna do his first communion??!?!!!? I absolutely hated this, and I skipped it every time I could, I rejected it totally, I always thought, hmmm these guys have no clue of how the world works, they don't believe in evolution, they say that the world was created in 7 days!! that we should fear a God that we don't know, but supposedly he's very vengeful and gets angry easily, sending you his son to eternal damnation if you don't do what they tell you. I always thought, hmmm if my human parents would still love me no matter how many mistakes I made, why would my heavenly father in the supposed case that he existed be so cruel? nonsense! my mother ended desisting after my resistance of going to cathecism.

However I said that I doubt I was an atheist because even though I didn't believe in God, and I thought that everything had a scientific explanation, even creation and the mysteries of life and that it was impossible that there were beings like christ or saints who could perform miracles, I always felt that there was at least some force of Good and an opposing Evil force, also as I always enjoyed reading, I read the bible and I read also the biography of John Bosco, I enjoyed those books very much, I found the bible fantastic and I even thought to myself what an amazing book, full of adventures!! I also found the story of john bosco charming and inspiring, I even secretly thought oh my dear God, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, maybe you exist after all!! so maybe I was just rebelling against society and it's impositions but secretly in my heart there was a young and tender love for God already.

As time passed I became more and more convinced of atheism, and I was very afraid of death, as I've always been a fan of sci-fi I even fantasized things like I'm gonna save money to send my body to one of those cryogenic labs so I can be brought back to life at a later time, or things like hmmm who knows maybe computer science gets so advanced in my life time that my consciousness could be downloaded to a computer or be put into a biomechanical body LOL, this was on my early twenties.

Everything changed after I was facing a difficult time in my life, then God send me a true friend, a brother who helped me a lot during these hard times, we knew each other since childhood, but it was then that we became really close friends, we shared the same interests, one of them was electronic music, specially a kind of it that started in Goa India, it is known as Goa Trance or Psychedelic trance because of this it is a genre that has a lot of influence of yoga and hinduism, I instantly feel attracted to it with tracks such as cosmic ascencion, kundalini, let there be light, mahadeva, and the producers of this genre such as Astral Projection, Message from God, Shiva Shidapu and others, this genre and the parties changed me forever, I was a shy computer geek until I started to go to these parties, where I felt an incredible energy coming out from this music which made me dance like a madman all night long, I felt how it charged my very soul strengthening it developing my character and spirit.

I had very nice conversations with my friend about these tracks and Goa parties, also about yoga, meditation, vitatrons, cosmic energy, cosmic vibration, karma, astral planes, causal planes, avatars but also about Christ, Krishna and God, the more he told me the more interested I became, I asked him, how do you know all these things, what has this to do with God? how can Christ and the Astral plane or God and Shiva relate to each other??? then he told me you have to read the autobiography of a yogi, I was like wooow, I never thought religion could be interesting, or that science and religion could go hand by hand, that spirituality could be explained scientifically too, or that yoga could be a sacred science to get in touch with God or that saints from all religions are on the same level and that all religious paths lead to the one and only truth, this got me trhilled I have to admit, I felt something pure, honest, unselfish and I developed a thirst for spiritual knowledge.

One day my friend told me I'm going to meditate at the temple, if you want i'll bring a copy of the Autobiography of a yogi for you, I said yes please, he did it, but it stayed in my desk for 3 months, I always said to myself, soon I'll read it, but I always ended doing something else instead, however my consciousness had changed already, thanks to the influence of my friend, his energy, his spirit, and the influence of Goa trance I already saw the world in a completely different way and God was very present in my thoughts and heart, however like I said I was facing a difficult time in my life at that moment, so suddenly I faced a crisis I was depressed and I thought to myself, oh man, I'm unemployed, I'm not studying, I'm not seeking a job either, my girlfriend left me, and all what I'm doing is laying down of my bed submerged in the most awful depression, then I thought with all the strenght of my soul, God help me!! help me please!!! then it came to my mind, the autobiography of a yogi!!!

I started reading it, and I couldn't stop, I instantly felt a blast of positive energy which bathed me entirely I devoured the book in 3 days, and I was changed forever, full of hapiness, inner peace and love, my whole life had a 360 degree turn after that, not long after that I decided to ask for my meditation lessons and give it a shot.

it was then when I started meditating that religious experiences came to my life, the more I meditate the stronger those experiences get.

I thank my divine mother everyday for her love, for her blessings, for having created me and given me a life full of love, light and fun, for having shared all this with me!!

I thank her also for hearing my distress call and sending me my gurudeva, my divine Paramhansa Yogananda!! and a beautiful way back to her!!!!!

ॐ.... गुरु..... परमहंस .......योगअनन्द
Om Guru Paramhansa Yogananda

ॐ गुरु परमहंस योगअनन्द!!!
ॐ गुरु परमहंस योगअनन्द!!!
ॐ गुरु परमहंस योगअनन्द!!!
ॐ गुरु परमहंस योगअनन्द!!!

My family my brothers and sister for a moment know!
The love of God?
We are all of us upon a journey? This powerful journey. This love of God?

[GCSTroop]

Originally Posted by actonbell

LOVE
Question: Where does the wind come from and when it blows, where does it go? Simple question, simple answer...

Do you really want to know where the wind comes from and where it goes? I'll give you a hint... my answer doesn't have God in it.

[bigstu]

Originally Posted by actonbell

LOVE
Question: Where does the wind come from and when it blows, where does it go? Simple question, simple answer...

Blows strong from that empty place
In search of the sails of one good man moving
Our intelligence is a seeking, a quickness, a zephyr?
We go within the construct of before
And blow it away!
Love, life, God

[bigstu]

Originally Posted by actonbell

The "Doubting Thomas of the bible had to see Jesus to believe He existed, that he had rose on the third day. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that one day, you will know whatsa, whatsa. I have an atheist daughter. I believe in a power beyond all powers. Little do I worry as in no need too.

He showed himself to me in a way there was no doubt left to my imagination. IT HAPPENS. The Lord takes care of all, in His time, not ours.

Eureka, the clash of realities

[bigstu]

Originally Posted by bigstu

Eureka, the clash of realities

Your reality is not my reality

Our reality is confused?

This reality is the game of man

Confusion will/ must have to end? For the future of us?

I attack empires and multinationals

One tribe, one race, one people, one hope halfway infinite

One world

the god of the infinite, that stretch to that place?

[Ellis Bell]

Originally Posted by GCSTroop

Do you really want to know where the wind comes from and where it goes? I'll give you a hint... my answer doesn't have God in it.

I'll try again, where does the wind come from? and try to keep it short. Better yet PM me you answer as we are getting off topic.

Just know at one time for a long time I too thought they were all very good stories written by people in need of cable TV.