Well, Common Sense Atheism is a resource by a respected member here who documented his extensive investigations into theology, philosophy and so on, which he started as a devout Christian and finished as an atheist.
Unequally Yoked is a blog coming from the opposite end, someone familiar with the language of rationality who started out as an atheist and ended up as a theist.
I don’t actually know where Leah (the author of the latter) archives her writings on the process of her conversion; I’ve really only read Yvain’s commentary on them, but she’s a member here and the only person I can think of who’s written from the convert angle, who I haven’t read and written off for bad reasoning.
By the time I encountered either person’s writings, I’d already hashed out the issue to my own satisfaction over a matter of years, and wasn’t really looking for more resources, so to the extent that I can vouch for them, it’s on the basis of their writings here rather than at their own sites, which is rather more extensive for Luke than Leah.
However, I will attest that my own experience of researching and developing my opinion on religion was as much shaped by reading up on many world religions as it was by reading religious and atheist philosophy. If you’re prepared to investigate the issue thoroughly for a long time, I suggest reading up on a lot of other religions, in-depth. Many of my own strongest reasons for not buying into common religious arguments are rooted, not in my experience with atheistic philosophy, but my experience with a wide variety of religions.
Leah has written less than one might hope on her reasons for converting, and basically nothing on how she now deals with all the usual atheist objections to Christian belief. Her primary reason for conversion appears to have been that Christianity fits better than atheism with the moral system she has always found most believable.
Someone who I think is an LW participant (but I don’t know for sure, and I don’t know under what name) wrote this fairly lengthy apologia for atheism; I think it was a sort of open letter to his friends and family explaining why he was leaving Christianity.
In the course of my own transition from Christianity to atheism I wrote up a lot of notes (approximately as many words as one paperback book), attempting to investigate the issue as open-mindedly as I could. (When I started writing them I was a Christian; when I stopped I was an atheist.) I intermittently think I should put them up on the web, but so far haven’t done so.
There are any number of books looking more or less rigorously at questions like “does a god exist?” and “is Christianity right?”. In just about every case, the author(s) take a quite definite position and are writing to persuade more than to explore, so they tend not to be, nor to feel, unbiased. Graham Oppy’s “Arguing about gods” is pretty even-handed, but quite technical. J L Mackie’s “The miracle of theism” is definitely arguing on the atheist side but generally very fair to the other guys, and shows what I think is a good tradeoff between rigour and approachability—but it’s rather old and doesn’t address a number of the arguments that one now hears all the time when Christians and atheists argue. The “Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology” is a handy collection of Christians’ arguments for the existence of God (and in some cases for more than that); not at all unbiased but its authors are at least generally trying to make sound arguments rather than just to sound persuasive.
who I haven’t read and written off for bad reasoning.
Do you mind providing examples of what you consider to be not-bad reasoning, so that I might update my beliefs about the quality of her work? I have read many posts written by Leah about a range of topics, including her conversion to Catholicism, and I thought her arguments often made absolutely no sense.
Leah is an example of someone arguing from the convert angle who I haven’t read and written off because I haven’t read her convert stuff. I can’t vouch for her arguments for conversion, I can only say that I wouldn’t write her off in general as someone worth paying attention to.
I can’t say the same of any of the other converts I can think of; C.S. Lewis is the usual go-to figure given by Christians, and while I have respect for his ability as a writer, I already know from my exposure to his apologetics that I couldn’t direct anyone to him as a resource in good conscience.
Ah, thanks for the clarification. I misunderstood you. I thought you meant that you had read her conversion-related writings and found her reasoning to be not-bad.
I wouldn’t write her off in general as someone worth paying attention to
Here is where we differ greatly, but I will continue reading her writings to see if my beliefs about the quality of her stuff will be updated upon more exposure to her thinking.
Well, Common Sense Atheism is a resource by a respected member here who documented his extensive investigations into theology, philosophy and so on, which he started as a devout Christian and finished as an atheist.
Unequally Yoked is a blog coming from the opposite end, someone familiar with the language of rationality who started out as an atheist and ended up as a theist.
I don’t actually know where Leah (the author of the latter) archives her writings on the process of her conversion; I’ve really only read Yvain’s commentary on them, but she’s a member here and the only person I can think of who’s written from the convert angle, who I haven’t read and written off for bad reasoning.
By the time I encountered either person’s writings, I’d already hashed out the issue to my own satisfaction over a matter of years, and wasn’t really looking for more resources, so to the extent that I can vouch for them, it’s on the basis of their writings here rather than at their own sites, which is rather more extensive for Luke than Leah.
However, I will attest that my own experience of researching and developing my opinion on religion was as much shaped by reading up on many world religions as it was by reading religious and atheist philosophy. If you’re prepared to investigate the issue thoroughly for a long time, I suggest reading up on a lot of other religions, in-depth. Many of my own strongest reasons for not buying into common religious arguments are rooted, not in my experience with atheistic philosophy, but my experience with a wide variety of religions.
Leah has written less than one might hope on her reasons for converting, and basically nothing on how she now deals with all the usual atheist objections to Christian belief. Her primary reason for conversion appears to have been that Christianity fits better than atheism with the moral system she has always found most believable.
Someone who I think is an LW participant (but I don’t know for sure, and I don’t know under what name) wrote this fairly lengthy apologia for atheism; I think it was a sort of open letter to his friends and family explaining why he was leaving Christianity.
In the course of my own transition from Christianity to atheism I wrote up a lot of notes (approximately as many words as one paperback book), attempting to investigate the issue as open-mindedly as I could. (When I started writing them I was a Christian; when I stopped I was an atheist.) I intermittently think I should put them up on the web, but so far haven’t done so.
There are any number of books looking more or less rigorously at questions like “does a god exist?” and “is Christianity right?”. In just about every case, the author(s) take a quite definite position and are writing to persuade more than to explore, so they tend not to be, nor to feel, unbiased. Graham Oppy’s “Arguing about gods” is pretty even-handed, but quite technical. J L Mackie’s “The miracle of theism” is definitely arguing on the atheist side but generally very fair to the other guys, and shows what I think is a good tradeoff between rigour and approachability—but it’s rather old and doesn’t address a number of the arguments that one now hears all the time when Christians and atheists argue. The “Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology” is a handy collection of Christians’ arguments for the existence of God (and in some cases for more than that); not at all unbiased but its authors are at least generally trying to make sound arguments rather than just to sound persuasive.
Do you mind providing examples of what you consider to be not-bad reasoning, so that I might update my beliefs about the quality of her work? I have read many posts written by Leah about a range of topics, including her conversion to Catholicism, and I thought her arguments often made absolutely no sense.
Leah is an example of someone arguing from the convert angle who I haven’t read and written off because I haven’t read her convert stuff. I can’t vouch for her arguments for conversion, I can only say that I wouldn’t write her off in general as someone worth paying attention to.
I can’t say the same of any of the other converts I can think of; C.S. Lewis is the usual go-to figure given by Christians, and while I have respect for his ability as a writer, I already know from my exposure to his apologetics that I couldn’t direct anyone to him as a resource in good conscience.
Ah, thanks for the clarification. I misunderstood you. I thought you meant that you had read her conversion-related writings and found her reasoning to be not-bad.
Here is where we differ greatly, but I will continue reading her writings to see if my beliefs about the quality of her stuff will be updated upon more exposure to her thinking.