Have I Ever Considered Reverting to Christianity?

hey everybody it's alex and i wanted to let you know just before this video begins that i've got a lot of exciting stuff coming up i know i haven't been particularly active on youtube recently but behind the scenes has been a little bit crazy on the 16th of may i'm going to be debating dr jonathan mcglatchy again we debated once before something of a rematch and the event is going to be live streamed so i'll leave a link to that in the description the following saturday i'm going to be engaging in a dialogue with trent horn who again i've debated in the past virtually but this time it's going to be in person in houston i've also got an incredible list i've been really lucky of upcoming guests on my podcast so especially when i'm traveling to the united states and i'll be leaving in just a few days starting in boston to debate jonathan mcglatchy moving through houston and austin and new orleans to interview a bunch of very interesting characters so i think you won't be disappointed if you stay with the channel and although i haven't been active very much recently there's a lot of content coming your way did you at any point of your atheism consider genuinely reverting back to christianity if so can you tell us about that well i do like to think that every single time i make a video every single time i interact with a christian or if i'm doing a debate like the debates that i've got coming up in the united states that i'm going in with the idea that at least potentially this could lead to a conversion to christianity if you go into a discussion or a conversation even on an online platform like youtube without even the possibility that you might become convinced by what somebody says in response then i think you're essentially wasting your time why are you bothering to engage in this dialogue in the first place if you're not seriously considering adopting your opponent's stance so of course there are two ways to interpret this question if you're asking if i've ever considered converting to christianity i do that on a practically daily basis when i'm engaging with this material the idea is to think hey let's see if this convinces me and if i've shut off this idea that i'll ever be able to revert back to christianity then as i say i'd be wasting my time but if you mean to say has there been any point at which i've thought to myself you know what this is beginning to convince me i'm actually beginning to feel myself being pulled towards christianity i can't say i've experienced anything quite like that nothing nothing not once not nearly not ever not even briefly have i experienced anything that speaks to the existence of a god in the universe of course my views have changed on particular arguments for instance you can see a video that i made debunking myself on the kalam cosmological argument because i think that my old criticisms simply weren't very good that's not to say that i'm convinced of the argument now but at the very least i would say that it's more plausible than i gave it credit for originally so there is shifting of that kind going on in my mind one thing i will say though is that i've been doing this for more than half a decade now it's a lot of time to be engaging with the world you that you don't actually believe in it seems a little bit strange from an outside perspective why would an atheist spend so long trying essentially to convert to christianity through the arguments of other people and by engaging with them well one answer is that i like to prove that i am actually doing what's being asked of me for so many atheists the the message is given to them that if you're not feeling god's presence in your life if you're not convinced of his existence then it's probably got something to do with you a lot of christians will be committed to this idea that if you don't feel god's presence in your life if the arguments aren't working if you're not feeling yourself pulled to christianity then it's something to do with you because it can't be something to do with god because god is a perfect being and a loving being this is intimately linked to something known as the problem of divine hiddenness divine hiddenness is the problem of god's apparent hiddenness in the universe if god exists and is omnipresent and wants to enter into a relationship with every human being then why isn't his existence immediately apparent to everybody why is it that i have to go looking for him and oftentimes don't find him why does he appear in other words to be hidden from us this argument was famously formalized by j.l schellenberg into premises that go like this premise one if there is a god he is perfectly loving premise two if a perfectly loving god exists reasonable non-belief does not occur premise 3 reasonable non-belief does occur and so the conclusion would follow that god does not exist now what is this reasonable non-belief well this is supposed to be distinguished from what shellenberg might call unreasonable non-belief or something like this it does seem clear that sometimes people can hold to positions unreasonably to put it mildly that is to say maybe if god does exist and does make his existence apparent to everybody there are some people who simply won't accept it even if it's obvious to them now this would be an example of unreasonable disbelief in god because you're given enough reason to believe in god but you still reject him anyway this i think everybody would agree is unreasonable and wouldn't be a problem for christianity if it were the case that god really did give us enough evidence of his existence and people rejected that evidence in an unreasonable fashion then that's not god's fault that would be our fault however there does seem to be this other category of disbelief called reasonable disbelief it's sometimes also called non-resistant non-belief that is somebody isn't convinced by evidence doesn't believe in god's existence not because they're being unreasonable or rejecting what should be sufficient evidence but genuinely honestly they're just not convinced maybe this is the kind of person who actually wants to believe in god i would count myself among that category i think it would be fantastic if christianity were true if there were a god who really loved us and really did die for our sins i think that would be wonderful for me but i just don't believe that it's the case now i'm presented with evidence and i don't find it convincing i don't think i'm being unreasonable here i think that i would fall into this category of reasonable disbelief or at the very least non-resistant non-belief and this is the kind of position that schellenberg is referring to when he says reasonable non-belief occurs that is there is at least one person on planet earth who doesn't believe in god but does so reasonably there are a few things we can take from this firstly it may be that this god simply doesn't exist this is the conclusion of the atheist and this is the conclusion of the divine hiddenness argument it seeks to establish that conclusion god doesn't exist that explains this situation a second conclusion that we could take is that this god does exist but isn't a loving god or maybe his loving character is of the kind of quality that means that even if there are people who want to be in a relationship with him for some reason he willingly denies them the third conclusion that we can take is that actually god is there and is perfectly loving and will let anybody who truly seeks him enter into a relationship with him it's just that anybody who claims that they are reasonably disbelieving but doesn't find god is actually not reasonably disbelieving they're doing something wrong they're actually not being reasonable in their assessment of the evidence in other words i think serious philosophical approach to this question will focus on the second of these options is god's love of such a nature that it would entail him just allowing anybody who wants to enter into a relationship with him to do so that's kind of an interesting philosophical question and it's one that i hope to actually delve into in my upcoming debates but certainly in everyday conversations with christians the third conclusion seems to be the more common at least in my experience that is when i tell somebody that i've been seeking god they kind of raise an eyebrow in skepticism as if to say yeah but are you really you know are you praying are you going to church are you really engaging honestly with the literature when you read the gospels are you reading them in this mindset of well let's see how i can disprove this or are you actually approaching the question honestly and this is why i think it's useful to have had my entire experience with this entire debate around the philosophy of religion essentially documented online you can look at the arguments i've made you can look at the interactions that i've had you can look at the way that my views have shifted and i hope that my actions in this whole journey helps substantiate the idea that there is such thing as reasonable non-belief and that i'm an example of somebody who would fit within that category and i think that this kind of interaction honestly engaging with the arguments at least as honestly as i'm capable of doing so is an example of considering converting back to christianity because if i am actually engaging with this stuff properly and openly and honestly and all of these things then every single time i engage with these questions every single time i do a debate or make a video or read a bit of scripture in that moment i am there and then considering converting back to christianity because if i weren't then in engaging with these arguments i wouldn't really be doing so honestly because i'd be shutting out the possibility of the very thing that i'm at least ostensibly trying to do by engaging with those arguments if you see what i'm saying so my entire career has been one large exercise in considering reverting to christianity and trying to get people to talk me into it thus far they just seem to have failed but one thing i have been told by speaking to christians privately that is outside of a debate format or outside of a format where there are hundreds of commenters trying to pick apart everything that they're saying they'll tell me that basically i'm approaching the entire subject wrong coming at it with the approach that natural theology is the most appropriate way to come to god that is if you want to become a christian the way that it's going to happen is by being convinced by the colon cosmological argument or the validity and soundness of the ontological argument or something like this they say this just isn't how it's done christianity is not so much a set of propositions as it is a relationship this is how the christian tends to see their relationship with god it's something that's done just as much as it's something that's believed you enter into a friendship a loving relationship with jesus christ or something like this what that means is that yes if you look at the nature of the universe and the constants of physics and all of this kind of stuff the stuff of natural theology it will point towards god because god exists christianity is true and so this stuff will lead to the conclusion that god exists but in terms of actually becoming a christian in your heart as it were it's not about that rather it's about trying to enter into a relationship by humbling yourself and praying and going to church and this kind of thing of course i'm highly skeptical of this i think yeah of course if you spend a bunch of time going to church reading christian literature hanging out with christian friends i wouldn't be surprised if you start to think christianity is more plausible i think that's just how human brains work as they say show me the friend and i'll show you the man human brain is hugely susceptible to the surroundings that it's placed within of course this would be true of the christian and the atheist but it makes me skeptical that this is an appropriate way to get to the truth but what it does mean is that more recently i've been trialling a slight shift in focus whereas previously i've tried to make syllogistic arguments and poking holes in the natural theology of my opponents i like to refer to things like divine hiddenness i like to say look this isn't just an intellectual problem this is one where somebody has not just put forward an argument and i've been unconvinced by it but one where i've looked at the universe as a human being and i've said look if there is a god that exists and does love me i'm ready to enter into a relationship with that god and just heard nothing in response and of course you have to apply the same mindset if a friend invites you to church and you want to say look i know what you're trying to do here i know you think that maybe if i start coming to church i'll see the truth of christianity but if you go into that church thinking to yourself right well this is obviously going to be ridiculous then you're not really doing what they've asked you to which is to come and try to actually engage with this stuff so you have to have the same mindset of like if i'm gonna go to this church because my friend has invited me i need to go in with at least part of me thinking you know this might work maybe in the next hour someone's gonna say something that's going to finally make me convert to christianity so no matter what approach i'm taking whether i'm dealing with a propositional argument or whether i'm you know allowing a group of christian friends to pray for me because they think that that might help me find god or something when it's being done you have to be always thinking that i'm potentially going to become a christian at the end of this because otherwise what's the point so yes kind of technically i guess i have considered converting to christianity but that's just the nature of everything that i do when i'm debating the question of christianity's truth expressvpn is a virtual private network a simple app that runs on your computer or smartphone which protects your online security when you use the internet when you browse the web lots of things are happening behind the scenes that you might not be aware of internet service providers in my country are required by law for example to keep logs of the websites that i visit and in the usa this data can be sold perfectly legally to advertisers and big tech big tech companies are also constantly tracking our online activity as we all well know in order to build up a picture of who you are what you're doing and how they can best manipulate your activity for profit so this is why i like to use expressvpn i can simply open the app and choose from a variety of locations from across the world and tap connect expressvpn then within seconds reroutes all of my online data through a separate secure server in the location of my choice which hides my ip address from big tech and also encrypts a hundred percent of my internet data keeping it safe from eavesdroppers suddenly i'm browsing a lot more anonymously expressvpn is also incredibly fast to connect to and doesn't slow down my online browsing activity at all you won't even notice that it's running in the background and the best part is this you can get three months of all of this completely for free by signing up using the link in the description or by visiting expressvpn.com forward slash cosmic skeptic give it a try and stop handing over your data to big tech for free with that said i've been alex o'connor thank you for watching and as i say keep your eyes peeled on this channel watch this space because there's a lot of very exciting content coming up just around the corner i hope to see some of you at the various events that i've got coming up again links will be available in the description if you can make it whether you can or whether you can't thanks for being here thanks for watching thank you as always to my supporters on patreon especially my top tier supporters who really do help to keep this channel afloat without them i simply couldn't do what i do if you like my work do consider becoming a supporter at patreon.com forward slash cosmic skeptic thank you for watching don't forget to subscribe and i'll see you in the next one you

Channel: Alex O'Connor

Views: 187,256

Keywords: Alex O'Connor, cosmic, skeptic, cosmicskeptic, atheism, vegan, veganism

Id: 17m3TvRWJmk

Length: 15min 15sec (915 seconds)

Published: Thu May 19 2022