noteworthy wrote:
Upon following these links, I found myself oddly fascinated by the concept of the "self-professed former atheist" and went forth in search of them. Apparently the species is severely endangered, or perhaps just extraordinarily reclusive. Aside from James Perloff, Google's world-wide search seems to have spotted only one other SPFA in the wild -- fortunately for James, the evidence suggests we have here a female of the species: Et-tu is a blog by Jen. a self-professed former atheist.
I link here to the search results page, because the actual blog is access-restricted, which only lends further credence to the insular theory.
But the search text is simply another blogger referring to Jen as an SPFA. Jen's blog is open and even has its own domain name: Conversion Diary Out of curiosity I decided to dig back to her first post. The original blog was called the Reluctant Atheist. The post is prophetic: I was raised to believe that God does not exist. When I was about 11 years old, for the first time, I realized what that meant.... About two years ago I decided to actually do my own research and try to come to my own conclusions about God. I realized that despite my mantra of being "open-minded" about religion I was actually quite closed to ideas that didn't fit with my atheist worldview. So here I am. Two years and a lot of research later I'm still not sure what I think. I've uncovered a lot of information and philosophical perspectives that I certainly was not told about as a kid and am still trying to process it all. After educating myself more about physics and biology I now believe intellectually in some sort of intelligent design, but my heart has yet to catch up. To be totally honest with myself, I'm still functionally an atheist. But I want to believe. My logical mind tells me some sort of creator exists. Some deep gut feeling tells me God exists. But I have a long way to go.
I wonder where this young woman's philosophical journey might lead her? Perhaps the second post is worth a look? Hrm. Although Jen is not sure whether or not she wants to become a Christian, she is apparently quite taken with the political ideology of religious conservatives. The fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, I-know-it-when-I-see-it value system of the atheist left leads to convictions that are as strongly held as the most devout Christian's, the only difference being that they're based on individual opinions rather than time tested scriptures... Judicial activism is a much more typical characteristic of the "spiritual but not religious" crowd on the left... Christians are comfortable with the concept of following laws. They understand at an early age that when it comes to laws, whether they're God's or the country's, your personal opinion doesn't matter... You don't generally see that sort of deep understanding and respect for laws on the left, possibly because of the disconnect with religion... Morris and his ilk need to stop the melodramatic hand-wringing about Christian conflict of interest and admit that these folks are much more likely to have respect for the system than people who think that humans and their opinions are the highest force in the universe.
At an early age, you say? I did find a list of famous SPFAs. Many seem to be politicians of one sort or another, but C.S. Lewis's journey is genuine as is the tragic story of his wife Joy Davidman. RE: On the concept of the self-professed former atheist | 
