Surprising Stories of Former Atheists (Dr. Jana Harmon) 

I grew up in an agnostic household but by high school was an anti-Christian atheist. It took some bad circumstances, having to admit to myself that I was not perfect or good, and a lot of time alone reading Mere Christianity and the Gospel of Luke, for me to believe. That was 41 years ago. 🙂

Man, my best friend is an atheist and I pray that God reveals himself to my friend the same way he did with these people.

Coming to Christ was the best thing I ever did. I was an atheist until 2 years ago (I also was a satanist, pagan, and new age hippie at points as well) My family has benefited in ways I never imagined. Love y'all!

I was an atheist and thought I would never believe in any god, let alone The God, that us, Christians believe in. Yet here I am. EDIT: well, might as well share my story.# not much to share, lived a debaucherous life, mocked God and most of all, mocked and hated Catholics the most. Seeds were planted one after another over years. By a JW knocking on the door (I know they arent Christians), years later I have seen Jordan Peterson and his Biblical lectures. That made me buy my first Bible and start reading. My girlfriend at the time freaked out at the sight of the Bible and lets just say things did not last very long after that. I wanted to learn and decide what church to go to, before I went. Well things took a different course and I ended up attending a baptist church. Then Hussite (yeah, I am a Czech), brethren church (kinda baptist) and got disillusioned as God was lacking there, felt more like social club and Bible study sessions rather than celebrating and worshipping God. Eventually I started considering Orthodox Christianity. One thing I was 100% certain on - no catholics. Well, my search for the Truth and desperate prayers led me to the Catholic church and now I am home and marvelling in the depth of knowledge the Church has about the Bible and the profound love and respect it shows to God.

My son hated that Christian teaching was that being gay was a sin and deserved hell. He had numerous wonderful friends who were gay & he couldn't accept they would go to Hell. He later came out as being gay himself & resented that we, his parents, thought he'd go to Hell. In college & military he went from anti Christian to actual God doesn't exist, to now being very anti God! While we still maintain a very loving relationship w/him, it has really broken our hearts. 😢 We pray for him daily & I, as his mother, am in an attitude of prayer for him constantly. Prayers for salvation are always in God's will! I just pray the Holy Spirit won't cease to call him - ever.

Jana's work helped my atheist Dad actually engage in the arguments after stumbling across her interview of me. ☺️🙏

Faith is truly the only armor against the enemy. I keep faith. As a single mom things are hard on me both of my sons are autistic and I’m constantly struggling to provide the basic necessities for them especially now that I’m homeschooling them because my hours to work are limited. I suffered an heart attack two years ago and I’m battling lupus my health isn’t the best. Yet God gives me strength. I will keep faith as I constantly struggle to pay bills and I constantly struggle to buy groceries for my children. The devil wants me to give up. But I know God Gives His Hardest Battles To His Strongest Soldiers. Jesus is King and I will serve him no matter my struggles.

Thank you both for that interesting and informative interview! Very helpful for understanding and relating to my atheistic friends and family. May God bless you both! 🙏🤗

Thank you for another great interview! I went looking for the book and it was $100.00! Hoping the price comes down soon so I can read it!

Thanks for your work, Jenna,! Sean. always grateful for your interview skills

Thank you, Dr. Harmon! Very much worth the listen.

Love this interview! So informative, thank you both. Fellow Biola Apologetics grad.

I loved this interview. Sean I’m reading a book right now about why the church is important, strictly on a practical standpoint. It’s called reorganized religion by Bob Smietana. You should try to see if you can get in contact with him for an interview. Much love, Jeremy! 🙏

I love Side B Stories podcast!!

I can barely hear Sean and Jana was very clear and loud in comparison. But a great episode, thanks!

The issue is not the evidence. The issue is the bondage of the will, the refusal to believe the evidence.

22:50 the best part about that is that every poll done shows at least half of the active scientists in the world are religious lol

Fantastic!

Blessings! Thank you for your work! I often wonder about those newly converted atheists that were devout Christians and were totally emmersed in their faith and left because their questions could not be answered and now are on youtube trying to tear apart apologists….(one youtuber did a segment on your discussion of hell). What do we do with that?

I am one of these people. At the time of this video's release, I was still a non-believer. I wouldn't have even been interested in this. It's taken me 40+ years of non-belief/non-interest. Suddenly, I'm a surprised believer. I have no good explanation for the change. Jesus just Suddenly made sense after making no sense to me for many years. I still have a soft spot for Hitchens. I was a big fan of his for quite some time. It's wild to me.

Is Dr Harmon planning on writing a more popular edition of her work?

Amazing discussion, with such rich insight - Thank you! (But unfortunately the book is $100 on Amazon?!)

This is a fascinating discussion, and the aspect of free will, no less so. Conceptually, each individual with a brain has free will. However, in the context of life, free will is impeded and enhanced by specific factors, including affiliation, association, world view, facilitation, obstruction, intimidation, group dynamics, indebtedness, and the list may be endless. Intellectually and academically, the freeest free will, on the human level, resides in a brain that habitually, systematically, methodically acknowledges all impediments to and enhancements of free will whenever it is exercised. Beyond this, a totalistic denial of the divine, or of the G-d factor, produces a gloominess that manifests existentially in the different facets of the human experience. G-d bless! 👍🙏

God is good! He Himslef says : Test the LORD and know that He is good!

Knowledge, itself, in not " Salvation. "

I am an ex Muslim. Jesus appeared to me in real life and He is God. Praise Jesus Christ the only way truth and life. The best thing that ever happened to me. Praise God❤

It’s good to acknowledge the honest search for truth. A lot of times I hear apologists saying that everyone believes in subjective truth these days. Maybe some people believe in non-absolute truth, but I haven’t met any. So I find it odd that apologists are always focusing on that

I am an atheist. Just started this podcast I don't have any real hope that this will change my mind, but that's just because of the popular christians that Dr.Harmon said she went to for advice. I mean William Craig? Really. And that case for christ guy? Yeah that's questionable at best. But who knows, I've been wrong before. I'll come back here once I've seen the podcast. But I predict there will be a lot of talk about how, "athiests are proud and really do believe in god they just won't admit it."

Love the idea of the book. But $100, ow. Why?

Very good.

I don’t think Creation design proves Christianity. But as a Christian it points to the truth of all the other evidence for Christianity ✝️ the Atheists have to believe in a lot of Crazy things that just stands out not to be true by looking at life as we know it. Most will agree with that they choose to be Atheists because they don’t want to believe God of the bible to be real which is so silly as only truth matters here. If God of the bible was not real and just make believe I wouldn’t want to believe in it as I wouldn’t want to believe in fairytales. Even if it brings good ways of life as we know it. It doesn’t Matter what Atheists think was here already to be able to build the building blocks of life to come to be. It doesn’t happen without a designer and that just clear that in matter what they come up with. Before I was a Christian I used to think people believe in God because they feared death 💀 nothing after we are gone. But Jesus should me it’s real in his way to make me think about God and life how it came to be ? Thanks for the great video 🙏👍

Robert Lawrence Kuhn -Closer to truth- check this lady out.

After searching for evidence, I finally found NDEs. I don't know if I can believe the resurrection. Haven't heard the right argument yet.

Is Dr. Harmon's PhD in sociology? Is she trained in sociological methods, or is she just winging it?

She said the cosmological argument is a strong piece of evidence for Christianity. How does it go? Everything that begins to exist has a cause, and that cause is Yahweh/Jesus. The universe began to exist, so therefore the universe has a cause, and that cause is Yahweh/Jesus.

I'd love to read the book, but my oh my it is expensive...

Even the abstract mind can adopt the literal practical Jesus. Same one classical American founders use. Even though we are all very aware of 2 archetypical minds way of rationalizing the world around you you can interpret old testimant in concert with archeology . You dont have to accept parallel spiritual dementions. Nephelin are no doubt Egyptian Pharoah and the mummy wraps. The Babylonian primordial soup sychololgy and physical prescriptions are competitive social behaviors cycling on

34:30 The Pine Creek Theorem: More women have turned men to Christianity than Jesus. Eric's Corollary: If your wife can't convert you to Jesus, you might not come to belief in Heaven, but you will believe in Hell.

They were not true atheists. They obviously never knew true atheism. That’s the sort of comments I received when I realised I might be an atheist and left Christianity. That I only thought I knew Jesus . I thought I was a Christian until I realised that theism made no sense. I realised I was more an igtheist than an atheist.

Running away from religion was the best thing I ever did Tired of worshipping a god that has no moral compass Aren’t women supposed to be silent and not allowed to teach men? I guess you decided to skip that part. I guess your not a good Christian if you ignore the teachings in the Bible

What evidence convinced them that the god of the Bible created our universe?

Beware of intellectual alex o connor an admirer of hitchens but has grasp on theology and philosophy. He will be a tool for despair

@seanmcdowell I'm ready to talk anytime, if you're really inviting atheists on to the show for interviews.

First of all we are not Mormons. Mormon was a prophet of God that wrote his history in his Book. We do not worship Mormon. The name of Gods Church is on this earth is the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Don’t bash what you don’t know or understand. Our church is the fastest growing church in the earth. We have 16 million people in the church. And yes we do believe in families.

Well, if 50 atheists converted to Christianity here in the US, then I must be the last one left. There were only 51 of us.

I fully support those New Christians in their VERY personal decision to move away from atheism towards christianity. Atheism is not an enlightened state of consciousness to be aspired to; it's only the mental state when garbage has been shed or not been gobbled up yet.

liberals tho?

This RU-vid video is more "telling" than some half-hearted atheists " converting" : After 25 years as an evangelical pastor I realized that Christianity is fiction - Bruce Gerencser 2.5K Likes 93,051 Views Feb 19 2023 Today I spoke with Bruce Gerencser, who pastored mostly Baptist churches for 25 years until he realized that Christianity is mythology and fiction, and deconverted. We discussed many topics including: Attending Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) Churches, starting with Tim LaHaye's church (of the "Left Behind" book series). Feeling close to god as he grew up. Saying the sinner's prayer at age 5 but rededicating his life as a teenager...

"Lee Strobel was an outspoken atheist," says Sean. Evidence for this claim? I call it a lie. If he was "outspoken" where are his articles, books, blogs, videos about atheism? Please provide links.

It's by the name of Jesus that you are saved not your works, not your sacrifices and not your law keeping. Just Jesus

I was also an atheist before I started searching. First I looked into poltergeist and mysteries, but when reading the gospels I just felt that this is true, this is God.

This was a great conversation! Thank you both for your time. Before I came to Christ, I thought that Christians were arrogant and self-righteous, full of double standards (because that's what I saw a lot when I was growing up), hateful, uneducated, and frankly, ignorant. Because this was my perception of Christianity (and also because of a lot of other issues within myself), I wanted nothing to do with God or the Church. When I came to Christ in 2017 (after a very radical conversion), I realized that everything that I used to think of Christians was because I had experiences with people who called themselves Christians but actually did not reflect Christ in a good way. The God of the Bible (Jesus) is the example to follow. Unfortunately, even as Christians we all still live in a broken world and I think that often times, people who call themselves Christians are not good examples of Christ and they do not make a good reputation for the Church. Of course, this is not true of ALL Christians, and there are MANY, MANY people within the Church who are excellent examples of God's love and grace and mercy. My prayer for the Church is that when people look at the way that we live our lives and the love that we give to others, they can see that there is something different about us and that it points to Christ. I pray that I never get looked at by a non-Christian and lead them to thinking that they want nothing to do with the Church because of a bad example that I have set. I think that as a whole, we as Christians need to remember that Jesus Himself said that "the greatest [of these] is LOVE". And that love should be evident in the way we live our lives and the way that we treat everyone else. On another note, Sean, you look like you are feeling much better! You have been progressing over the last several episodes and look much healthier right now. Your energy and personality seem to be coming back too! I know we have all been praying for you and will continue to do so. God bless you, brother Sean.

I was reborn in Christ few weeks ago ! It was the best thing it could happened to me

This was fascinating to me. Because I was an atheist for 40 years. Mine was based in deep and ongoing pain from severe abuse. I came to atheism in absolute disgust for God and Christianity. After spending 35 years in therapy for that severe abuse, I came to the end point and had one little thing left I had not cleared up: I knew I had been lied to extensively about God. So, as Jana's "typical" atheists did, I studied alone. And in secret for all the reasons given in the video above. I wanted the information about God to be as close to first hand as I could get. So I read the Bible. And yes, I HAD been lied to extensively, and by many people. I was so floored with what I had read in the Bible, I decided to read it again. It was about halfway through that second reading that I came to faith. No "hallucinations" or visions. Just a sudden, deep realization that God was real. It was His presence. Oh, and the last thing on earth I EVER wanted to be was one of those "Christians". Well, too bad. I was converted, alone, with a Bible on my lap. I'm absolutely an advocate to ALL people: read the Bible. Don't believe the lies you hear about God or Christianity. Get your source as first hand as possible. And if you are a Christian, READ your Bible. That's how you are regenerated along with the Holy Spirit's presence in you as a result of your salvation. Really enjoyed listening to this video.

Wow, I actually became an atheist when I was 15 and turned to Christ when I was 26

I will definitely go out and buy Jana’s new book ‘Atheists Finding God’. I had the pleasure of being interviewed on Jana’s podcast B-Side Stories, (Chris Waghorn) where I shared my own story. What I like about Jana’s podcast is that it deals with real people who have real stories to tell about their journeys to faith! ❤

I was a lukewarm Christian for a few years, never read the Bible, didn’t find a church that nourished our family with the doctrine and true Gospel. Then, a lady who worked in our business, had raised 7 children (2 were her husband’s niece and nephew) husband had left her for a younger woman, she was still raving last son alone. Yet she would come in every time with a beaming smile and would say, « He loves me! He loves me! », that was when i started reading my Bible and started my real relationship with Jesus.

tremendous podcast... it has been super encouraging for me! Love listening to each episode!

Most of my husband's friends are atheists and they're mostly skateboarders (he's been skateboarding since 1993). Something I've noticed in 99.9% of the cases, is that they had horrible fathers and very difficult childhoods. The one exception is a guy who came out if Mormonism. I'm not saying this is true for all or most atheists, but in that group it is very clearly part of the reason for their unbelief. Why would you believe God is a loving Father, if the only father you knew physically and emotionally abused you?

Jana Harmon is a super champ! proof a believer can think with the best of them.

I would love to read her book! Hopefully the price will come down soon so more of us can afford it. ❤️

I wasn't an atheist, I was an agnostic with severe Christian phobia. But she's got my number.

I can relate to so much she's saying. Identity is an interesting aspect of it that should have more weight, I believe. I used my contrarian views as a means to appear interesting and cool. Maybe she'll get to it, but disappointment with actual Christians you associate with was a factor for me as well. I just didn't understand how this is a fallen world where all are sinners. And as a young man I was easily overpowered by the negative cultural biases. My hubris was the false belief that I knew everything about Christianity just because I grew up in it. But at 16 ... come on, I knew nothing about anything at that age. Also, the sorrow and resentment arising from the early death of my father factored in. Made it easier for the Cain-like anger to set in, and new atheism gave me a target for my anger, as well as a means to boost my ego and appear superior to: stupid Christians. Now 35 years later it's also disappointment that has pointed me back towards Christianity. The West has a sickness, and I firmly believe that secularism got us there. Now as I read the Bible, listen to apologetics, study theology, I'm finding solutions to so many problems that ails both me and the world. And I'm beginning to feel actual meaning in things. I don't want to be a contrarian any more. I want the truth.

I really, truly would love to hear people’s testimonies on here, if possible. It is so encouraging and refreshing to hear how folks come out of unbelief into belief. If anybody minds, could I hear your story on how that happened for you, if it did? I don’t mind if it’s a long post. It’s amazing to see how God works, and I think everyone here could find strength in these testimonies.

I always believed there was a God. But being indoctinated with evolution since grade schoold, it was very difficult to believe the bible. It was a big stumbling block. But now I know the whole Bible is true😊

Sean needs to adjust his volume, he sounds like he is talking in a box whereas Jana volume came in load and clear...good video...

Outstanding job by both of you. One question I would have asked is whether, post conversion, the former atheists looked back and saw God's hand protecting/leading them long before they converted.

This was good, it really helps me understand better how to approach atheism, it always seemed too argument based and uncomfortable. That is a book I want to read.

Wonder if anyone was removed from this study, or how the author determined if her low number of subjects were ex-atheists. Judging from her sources of subjects (william craig) and cliche anti-atheist talking points I find her findings to be very...paltry.

Praise the Lord for His amazing grace that draws all men to Him. Thanks for the great interview. I really enjoy watching your content, Sean. God bless you.

Like the hair, Sean.

As a scientist and a Christian, this is one of the most valuable interviews I have ever seen. I have lots of atheist friends, and it’s good to know how to support them.

@Jana, do you think that using just 50 people in your study, gives an accurate indication of atheists on the whole?

Someone help Sean with his audio production.

Her podcast EX-SKEPTIC is great

Last words is spot on. ❤ Thank for conversation.

It’s interesting that some claim to reject God because they are embittered by personal pain, so that’s a justification against Him. But then there are the comfortable atheists who cannot be moved until there is a crisis that can’t be stabilized outside of God. Whether their lives are pleasant or painful, either argument seems convenient as a case against God. As Frank Turek says, a good part of the time, it is a heart issue totally apart from the stated objection.

Listen to the people that came to Christ out of Muslim countries, That will put a fire in you. Our churches have not yet felt the pain and hopelessness.

If you want to know the truth, follow the money.

Atheist = when I die and if I meet God I got my arguments packed so I'm safe.

Where are the atheists ???

Notice that she said most of the atheists that changed their mind and became Christians at around 26 years of age. The age of 25 is when most people's or humans brains become fully developed. The last part of the human brain to mature is the part that is used for rational thought. That correlation is probably not a coincidence. 😊 People with immature brains, like teenagers, often make really stupid decisions and do really dumb things. That's the age when people often take on beliefs that are ridiculous. Also the age when young people tend to protest and join groups and organizations that protest about various things that they don't think are correct or right in our society.

Could the moral demands of Christ not influence teens when hormones are there to r

God is a logical necessity. Denial of God is an argument from ignorance.

🙏✝️💒

👍

Is eternal life an option or is it a must to do so? Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to go beyond the grave to the next life, you must die in your physical body or separate your physical body from your soul. Life is not optional, but must be done. Choose the right path to end up in the right place, Do not choose the wrong way to avoid getting to the wrong place. Those who follow the way of God will rest in peace when they die. ( Isaiah 57:2 )

I have a question. How is it possible for a Christian to marry a non-christian? Is the answer that the "Christian" that you are discussing in this podcast was one that was ignorant of the fact that Christians don't (or should not) marry non-christians?

Oh, fun! 50 testimonies- I really hope they explain why they were atheists, how thoughtful they were about the question of God before they converted. That is, that they share their well-informed atheistic thoughts like how the biblical god looks like a progression, development or evolution of preexisting ANE deities of the time, or how the idea of a god who demands the foreskins of infants and the blood of animals, and the death by stoning of those who’ve offended him, and the slaughter children by sword and death of a human population by drowning, the scattering of humanity and scrambling of their language- all these sorts of petty things, just didn’t make sense to them. Also, Among 50 former atheists, surely at least one of them will express the frustration that Bible god uses the word “God” for his name and thus muddies the conversation about the existence of god (what word do we use for those of us who are agnostic about *a god*, but emphatically sure that Sean’s god doesn’t exist?).

She said atheism means "no god" that's not true it means "Not knowing"

Well, personal research of personal stories is about the worst possible science, but I'll admit, anecdotes make good stories and often good books. Too bad the book is priced so high it's unaffordable for the masses. I was actually curious enough I might have bought it until I found the $45 price tag (for a book barely topping 200 pages). The problem, @seanmcdowell is that 50 stories are a tiny tiny tiny tiny miniscule meaningless sample size. Look at the Pew studies (and others) in America alone, Christianity has lost 10s of MILLIONS to agnosticism/atheism. The other sort of funny thing is that EVERY Christian is a convert from atheism, none of y'all came out of your mamma's belly preaching Jesus. You HAD to be indoctrinated to become a Christian, remember that? That's when the people you trusted most in the world told you about Jesus, just like billions of other loving parents tell their children about Allah or Vishnu and Krishna or some other god(s). In anycase, I'm curious about these stories. As a funny sidebar, the latest big name convert to Christianity did so for political reasons, never once mentioning in her public announcement that she converted for truth, but rather, to better battle commies and wokies. Haha, so yeah, the world is changing before our eyes. Only about 60 years ago, this African woman wouldn't have even been allowed in the door in most (probably all) Southern white churches, now she's hailed as a hero....but, alas, Christians might have started ringing the liberty bell too soon on this one. Are you really a Christian if you deny the resurrection? I wonder how many of these 50 former atheists are cultural Christians as well? Emotional converts, who needed a community....

“Dream, vision encounter “. I use to dream I could fly, but I’ve never jumped off any tall building to put it to the test. A friend of mine jumped out of an 18 story building with a bible in his hand. Needless to say he had a closed coffin funeral.

Very interesting topic. I wanted to listen to it but very poor sound quality when Sean was speaking

Can you do a video on 50 Christians finding Atheism? I like when things are kept fair and balanced. Like there’s a lot of Bible scholars who became atheists after studying the Bible. That would make an interesting video. Keep up the great content.

I started down the road as a non-believer as a teenager as well but, unlike the focus of this book, I never went back. Growing up we were weekly church goers attending a mainstream Canadian protestant church, but otherwise we weren’t an extremely religious family. It was a long time ago now but I remember two things that led me to Atheism. The first was going through the confirmation process to become a member of the church. I tried the bible reading and prayer that the Rev encouraged us to do but that wasn’t interesting or fulfilling enough to hold my interest. I can even recall one class where the Rev posed the hypothetical “what if God wasn’t real”. I think that lesson was supposed to bring us full circle back to concluding there was a god but I wasn’t very convinced to stay on that track. Also, the sermons I had to sit through by the two different Revs my church had in those days held no interest either and frankly had to be endured. I recall using the same mental tactics that I once read an American POW during the Vietnam war used to survive his captivity. LOL And to be clear and cut off an apologetic that many might start to formulate after reading the preceding > This was not me being an especially rebellious teenager which would not be an apt description of my behaviour in those days. The second thing that led to my deconversion was learning to appreciate the value of skepticism after seeing the magician James Randi on TV exposing various charlatans for the frauds or delusionals they are. Then later as a young adult after obtaining regular access to the internet in the 1990s I started researching Christianity and came to learn there were many grounds to be skeptical about the claims Christians make. A major source of info at the time was the articles available for free at the Secular Web which is maintained by the Internet Infidels. I still recommend that site as a good first place for people to start considering whether or not their beliefs can stand up to critical scrutiny. This has been a life long interest and now after several decades of discussions and consideration I grow ever more convinced that Christianity is ridiculous and belief is far from being warranted.

I considered myself an atheist for some 10 to 15 years after I walked out of the church, I worked out it was religion specifically the christian religion I felt I was an atheist towards, took me that time to properly work out how to de-program myself from the christian dogma. I slowly began to open my my to the concept of a higher power, I began my spiritual journey, over many years and largely by myself I began to understand the connection of life to everything contained within it, the christian faith teaches a disconnect from the cosmos and our natural world, from what I understand now about our being and place I consider the disconnect to be a malicious wilful act by the church, evil really. I shan't ever be returning to the stilted and corrupted spiritual path of christianity.

Division is all you teach. You are on our team or you are condemned.

What is causing so many _more_ people to deconvert from religion? If you listen to their stories, a common theme emerges: "I learned too much."