Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Atheists Confess What Would Actually Change Their Minds About Religion

Atheists Confess What Would Actually Change Their Minds About Religion
@yomommasofat3/Reddit
Make us preferred on Google

When it comes to religion, a person either believes in a god or doesn't believe that a higher power exists.

But people are more complex than that. As we evolve throughout our respective journeys in life, we are known to vacillate between conforming to some ideas while dismissing others.

What we used to believe in no longer applies based on our negative experiences and vice versa.

Does it work the same way with faith and believing in God?


Curious to hear from non-religious people online, Redditor Graysie-Redux asked:

"Atheists of Reddit: What could change your mind?"

The proof is in the pudding.

Proper Comeuppance

"Every single paedophile/rapist in religious positions of power being simultaneously struck by lightning."

– serharridan

Evidence

"Any actual evidence. Also change my mind about which god(s)? Yahweh, Zeus, Osiris, Amaterasu?"

"I'm always amused by people not understanding what athiesm is. It's not a belief. Its a rejection of a claim and that's it. It's not what evidence would convince me otherwise, it's what evidence do you have. I observe said evidence and say that's not sufficient evidence because..."

– Rdr198829

Deeper Persuasion Required

"Nothing could suddenly change my mind into believing in the Christian (all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving) God. Proof of an entity with reality-changing powers would certainly change my world-view, but only to the point where I recognize that such a thing exists in the known universe. Ability does not imply divinity (or altruism)"

– Piercewise1

A Father's Experience After A Heart Attack

"My dad is an atheist, and had a major heart attack last year which came extremely close to killing him many times. He was in a coma for more than a month."

"During that time, several Christian family members wondered if he was having a religious experience, had seen/spoken to god or maybe his late daughter as an angel, and would awake as a religious man now."

"I said there was zero chance. Even if he did actually have these experiences and then come out of the coma and tell us about them, he would never say 'I talked to god while I was in a coma.' He would say 'The chemicals in my brain did an interesting thing while I was in a coma.'”

"As it happened, he did live and was able to tell us about his experience. None of it was remotely religious. It was mostly memories of thinking the hospital staff were torturing him."

"The closest thing he had during the coma was a dream where he saw my wife telling him that my dead sister and my wife’s dead sister were talking in heaven."

– PRGuyHere

These atheists believe in heavy sarcasm.

The Mythic Creature

"As a former atheist, what changed my mind was that, i learned the flying spaghetti monster existed."

– ThundaCrossSplitAtak

Egyptian Deity

"Christians, what would convince you to worship the Egyptian god Ra?"

– RedofPaw

"Whichever one, Christ or Ra, shows up in front of me first and bitch slaps me."

"Edit: if one of you offering to slap me are a God please teleport to my location to prove it you coward."

– RikenVorkovin

Money Talks

"I don't even need proof. I'll believe in him for €10m. I accept cash."

– ShadyShamaster

"Now that's a conversion method I could get into."

– yomommasofat3

The jury is still out for these Redditors.

Time To See Someone

"Don't know if there's anything. If some god appeared I'd still wonder if this was some hallucination and make an appointment with a psychologist."

– Destriant_of_Perish

Seeing Is Believing

"I think for me god would have to appear on a societal level in addition to seeing them myself. If my friends and relatives (who are also mostly atheist or agnostic) testified to also seeing god, as well as the general public and it became a known thing that god was real and making appearances I would probably believe it too."

– Feral_doves

Hearing It From The Source

"A god showing me they're real."

"Not a person telling me why their god is real. That's evidence of nothing."

"Gods shouldn't need middlemen."

– Vic_Hedges

There is not enough convincing that can persuade atheists to believe in an all-powerful, omniscient entity.

Many of them would attest to a higher power if they could be presented with tangible evidence of its existence.

Yet, I'm pretty sure most people who claim to have faith have not witnessed any appearances by God.

So this is an interesting conversation about what leads people to believe or completely dismiss the possibility that there might be something greater out there than any of us can ever imagine.

What do you think?

Want to "know" more?

Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.

Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Screenshots from TikToker @user4934997299767's video
@user4934997299767/TikTok

TikToker Confronts Stranger Who Allegedly Stopped His Car To Follow Her—And Women Are Nodding Hard

Though skeptics might argue that women can safely walk around and enjoy life without a care in the world, one woman shared a video of how often that isn't true.

Originally posted on TikToker @user4934997299767's account, the woman recorded herself walking outside on a sidewalk in a wide open area, allegedly right after a man had driven past her and noticed her. He'd then made a U-turn and pulled his car over so that he could get out and follow her.

Keep ReadingShow less
Anne Hathaway
Cindy Ord/SiriusXM/Getty Images

Anne Hathaway Just Revealed That She Was Having A Panic Attack In One Of Her Most Memed Moments—And Fans Are Floored

Anne Hathaway has been involved in a lot of memes throughout her career, from looking disappointedly at an ice cream cone to her transformation as Mia Thermopolis in The Princess Diaries becoming one of the most frequently trending sounds on TikTok.

Fortunately, not only is Hathaway aware of many of these mentions, but based on her Esquire interview opposite Star Wars star Ewan McGregor, she finds many of them quite funny.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @a_daywillcome's video
@a_daywillcome/Instagram

Woman Who Lives In High-Rise Sparks Debate After Forcing Hispanic Window Cleaner To Get Off Her Balcony in Viral Video

A woman who lives in a high-rise building called out an employee for walking on her balcony to clean her windows, and she did not get the validation she was looking for when she shared the video.

The woman started recording as she walked into her main living space, and an employee was unstrapped from the equipment used to scale the building as he cleaned her balcony windows.

Keep ReadingShow less
Tom Holland & Zendaya; Chrissy Teigen
Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images; MEGA/GC Images

Resurfaced Clip Of Zendaya's Panicked Expression After She Thought Chrissy Teigen Was About To Kiss Tom Holland Has Fans Cackling

By now, pretty much anyone who spends any time on the internet is intimately familiar with Tom Holland's iconic 2017 performance on Lip Sync Battle, emulating Rihanna and doing a barn-storming performance of "Umbrella."

For one, it's just an incredible performance. But what really makes the moment shine is Zendaya's reaction to it as she watches—many believe it's the exact moment she fell for the actor.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sam Altman
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

OpenAI CEO Ripped After Suggesting Tip For Using ChatGPT To Help Parent Your Kids—And It's So Bleak

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is desperate to push his highly unpopular product, going on talk shows to gush about its benefits and making suggestions online for how everyone can use ChatGPT in their daily lives. The tech billionaire tries hard to sell the public on AI, but his recent assertion that parents should use it to avoid speaking with their kids didn't land well.

On Friday, Altman tried to convince parents that his app, ChatGPT Work, was the answer to their parenting needs. But it read more like a cheat code for people who don't know how to interact with other humans, including their own children.

Keep ReadingShow less