Welcome to the Church!
To read his blog, this conversion seems rather sudden, and one might almost be tempted to worry that it’s some kind of prank.
However, it is on the level — The Raving Atheist has become The Raving Theist, and has found the grace of faith in the Catholic Church:
Three years ago, I promoted and appeared in the atheist documentary “The God Who Wasn’t There,” dedicated to the proposition that Jesus never existed.
TODAY I DEDICATE THIS SITE AND MY LIFE TO THE WORSHIP AND SERVICE OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST.
This is a pretty huge change for a guy who ran a site with a category called “Godidiot of the Week,” but it couldn’t come at a more perfect time either. As Christians everywhere prepare to celebrate the promise of new life in Christ that began at his Incarnation and birth, one lonely, lost soul has found its way into the light.
Welcome to the Church, Raving Theist!
Update: What’s really hilarious, even if this is a joke, is the animosity and vitriol coming from the mouths of atheists in the comments form, the vast majority of which have the general form of “You suck, you’ve abandoned reason for madness, and I’m not reading you anymore. So…nyah!”
Even if the Raving Theist is having us on, which I doubt, the performance of his (former) philosophical brothers and sisters in response to his conversion is an ugly thing indeed, and might itself be enough to give others who have begun to question whether atheism is in fact rational a forceful shove in the direction of theism.
Coincidentally: Pope Benedict XVI recently invoked the memory of Blessed John Duns Scotus as a model for believers, specifically because Scotus made it his lifelong work to explore the connection between faith and reason.
“Firm in the Catholic faith, he labored to understand, explain and defend the truths of faith in the light of human reason,” the Pope continued. “He labored especially to demonstrate the consonance of natural and supernatural truths, which emanate from the same source.”
(source)
In any case, the difference this time vs. the April Fools joke is even the atheists believe it’s legit, hence the criticism.
Very true.
“Thoughts and Explanations” | Kenneth Hynek (January 5, 2009, 11:21 am).
[...] Raving Theist confirms that it’s for real — his unexpectedly high-profile conversion to Christianity (to Catholicism, specifically, which only makes things sweeter) at Christmastime is [...]