Below are some resources for leaving atheism and becoming a Christian:
Evidence and arguments for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
See also: Evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is critical to the Christian faith. The Apostle Paul wrote, "if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain" (I Corinthians:15:14).
There is a great amount of compelling evidence from multiple lines of evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ (See: Evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ).
Traditionally, Christianity has believed in a physical resurrection of Jesus Christ.[1] The Christian apologist Michael Horner of CRU has an excellent resource which offers a defense of the resurrection of Jesus Christ entitled Did Jesus really rise from the dead?. In addition, Dr. Gary Habermas offers an online audio library which defends the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In recent history, Dr. Gary Habermas is considered the foremost Christian apologist for defending the resurrection of Jesus.[2][3][4][5][6] Dr. Habermas had a debate against the philosopher Antony Flew regarding the resurrection which was chronicled in the work Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? The Resurrection Debate and the debate had a panel of debate judges. J. Hampton Keathley, III, Th.M. in his essay Evidences for the Resurrection wrote: "The decision of the judges were as follows. The panel of philosophers judging content cast four votes for Habermas who argued for the fact of the resurrection, none for Flew, and one draw. The panel of professional debate judges voted three to two, also in favor of Habermas, this time regarding the method of argumentation technique." [7]
In recent history some notable defenders of the resurrection include: William Lane Craig, Ben Witherington, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, Edwin M. Yamauchi, N.T. Wright and Michael Horner.[8][9][10][11][12]
Legal scholars, legal authorities, and eminent lawyers such as Simon Greenleaf, John Warwick Montgomery, Lord Darling, John Singleton Copley, Hugo Grotius, Lord Caldecote, J. N. D. Anderson, Lionel Luckhoo, and many others have asserted that western legal standards argue for the resurrection of Christ.[13][14][15][16][17] See also: Christian legal apologetics
Ex-atheist testimonies
- See also: Ex-atheist testimonies
Below are some ex-atheist testimonies of Christians:
Video Testimonies of ex-atheists
General videos:
- From Atheist to Christian at Yale - Dr. Paul Lim
- From atheism to Christianity: My testimony, Part 1
- From atheism to Christianity: My testimony, Part 2
Ex-atheist Lee Strobel's Christian video testimony:
Peter Hitchen videos - brother of atheist Christopher Hitchens
C.S. Lewis video:
Other Christian video testimonies
Audio testimonials of ex-atheists
Text testimonials of ex-atheists
Videos on atheism
Atheism website resources
A Sermon on Christ for Atheists by Paul Washer
Tips on choosing a Christian church
Positive personality changes and religious conversion
See also: Neuroplasticity and the ability of individuals to change their personality and Typical changeability of the Big Five personality traits
The Big Five personality traits change due to a person becoming more mature, efforts to change the personality traits or a major life change (See: Neuroplasticity and the ability of individuals to change their personality).
Personality changes due to religious conversion:
| “ | Religious conversion is one of the life events most strongly associated with personality change, because it often reshapes someone’s identity, daily habits, values, and social world. But the magnitude of change is usually not unlimited—it tends to be moderate rather than extreme, and uneven across the Big Five traits.
Average change: Studies suggest that religious conversion or increased religiosity is associated with about 0.3 to 0.7 standard deviations of change in certain traits over time. Maximum documented change: In rare, profound cases (e.g., dramatic “born-again” conversions or entry into highly structured religious orders), people can shift by 1+ standard deviation on some traits, but that’s exceptional.[18] |
” |
"A bell curve, also known as a normal distribution, is a symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that represents the distribution of data in statistics. Standard deviations measure the spread or dispersion of data points around the mean (average) of a normal distribution. In a normal distribution, roughly 68% of the data falls within one standard deviation of the mean, 95% within two standard deviations, and 99.7% within three standard deviations."[19]
There is a significant amount of historical and scientific evidence that Bible reading has greatly increased human flourishing such as people's physical health, psychological well-being, character and virtue, and social connections (See: Bible reading and human flourishing).
Big Five personality traits
- Conscientiousness - Self-control/Self-discipline/willpower, efficiency/productivity, orderliness/organizational skills and dependable. Conscientiousness is positively correlated to a desire to perform a task well. See: Self-efficacy and Skill and Work ethic
- Extraversion - Assertive, energetic, and personable. See: Interpersonal skills and Interpersonal relations and Social intelligence and Conversational skills and Communication skills and Affability and Friendship and Social networking and Conflict resolution
- Agreeableness - Understanding and cooperativeness. See: Empathy and Collaboration
- Neuroticism (See also: Emotional stability) - Anxiety/fear, vulnerability, and sensitivity. See also: Courage and Confidence and Mindset and Growth mindset and Optimism and Mental toughness and Psychological resilience and Comfort zone
- Openness - Creativity, imagination, imitativeness, intellectual curiosity and innovation [20][21]
Books on being a disciple of Jesus Christ
- The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ by Bill Hull. NavPress; Annotated edition (November 6, 2006)
- The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges. NavPress; Enlarged edition (November 3, 2016)
- The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges. NavPress (June 1, 2016)