List of former atheists and agnostics

For lists of atheists who converted to Christianity, Islam, or Judaism see the following links:

• List of converts to Christianity from nontheism
• List of converts to Islam from nontheism
• List of converts to Judaism from Atheism

All other former atheists and agnostics that have been listed so far are below.

Former atheists

Atheists who converted to Christianity

• Rosalind Picard - Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, director and also the founder of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab, co-director of the Things That Think Consortium,^[1] and co-founder of startups Affectiva^[2] and Empatica
• Hugh Ross (astrophysicist) - Canadian astrophysicist, Christian apologist, and old earth creationist.
• Alister McGrath - Northern Irish Scientist, theologian, priest, intellectual historian and Christian apologist.
• Francis Collins - American physician-geneticist noted for his discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project. He is director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
• Alexis Carrel - French surgeon and biologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912.^[3]
• Lee Strobel - American Christian Apologetic author. He has written several books, including four which received ECPA Christian Book Awards (1994, 1999, 2001, 2005)^[4] and a series which addresses challenges to a Biblically inerrant view of Christianity.^[5]
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - Russian novelist, historian. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970.^[6]
• Vladimir Putin - current President of the Russian Federation.
• Czesław Miłosz - poet, prose writer, translator and diplomat. He was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and in 1980 the Nobel Prize in Literature.^[7]
• C. S. Lewis - Oxford Scholar http://cslewis.drzeus.net/bio/ and 'Surprised by Joy: The shape of my life' Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1966
• Dr David Catchpoole, B.Ag.Sc. (Hons), Ph.D. - plant physiologist http://creation.com/david-catchpoole-cv
• Dr Emil Silvestru - geologist/karstologist Ph.D in geology at the ‘Babes-Bolyai’ University in Cluj, Romania http://creation.com/following-darwin-an-interview-with-dr-emil-silvestru
• Richard Peachey, B.Th., B.Sc. Richard Peachey http://creation.com/richard-peachey
• Dr Carl Wieland M.B., B.S http://creation.com/carl-wieland-retires
• Dr Russell Humphreys - physicist B.S., Duke University, Durham, NC, 1963, Ph.D., Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 1972 Beginning in 1979 he worked for Sandia National Laboratories (New Mexico) in nuclear physics, geophysics, pulsed-power research, and theoretical atomic and nuclear physics. In 1985, he began working with Sandia’s ‘Particle Beam Fusion Project’, and was co-inventor of special laser-triggered ‘Rimfire’ high-voltage switches, now coming into wider use. The last decade at Sandia saw greater emphasis on theoretical nuclear physics and radiation hydrodynamics in an effort to help produce the world’s first lab–scale thermonuclear fusion. Besides gaining two other U.S. patents, Dr Humphreys has been given two awards from Sandia, including an Award for Excellence for contributions to light ion–fusion target theory. http://creation.com/d-russell-humphreys-cv

Atheists who converted to Hinduism

• Annie Besant - theosophist, orator and feminist^[8]
• John Dobson - became a believer in Vedanta – astronomer and telescope designer^[9][10]
• Sita Ram Goel - Indian commentator, writer and Hindu activist^[11]
• Revathi Thirunal Rama Varma Raja - titular head of Pandalam palace, considered to be the post of the father of Lord Ayyappan, and retired Government Servant. Was a devout Hindu until his early teens. Later became a strong atheist and a follower of Communist Party. But finally, he reverted to Hinduism in his old age. He says that it was a serious accident which turned him to be a Hindu.

Atheists who became an unspecified/uncertain form of theism or deism

• Eben Alexander - neurosurgeon, author, teaching physician. Author of Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife.
• Plutarco Elías Calles former president of Mexico who was an atheist but became a spiritism later in life.
• Gabrielle Carey - Australian author of Puberty Blues who was raised atheist but converted to Catholicism and then explored other theologies.^[12][13]
• Antony Flew - philosopher and respected atheist thinker of the 20th century, became a deist.^[14]
• Moses Hess - Socialist philosopher and Left Hegelian who first influenced Karl Marx in his criticism of religion, but who later tried to combine the pantheism of Baruch Spinoza with Hegelianism.^[15]
• Anne Rice - best-selling American author of Gothic and religious-themed books.^[16] She returned to Catholicism, and remained as such for many years, but has since announced that although she still believes in God and in Christ she no longer considers herself a Christian.^[17][18]
• J. Neil Schulman - Libertarian science fiction writer who states he met, or experienced, God and that this ended his atheism. The first such experience would have occurred when he was 35. That stated he remains skeptical of "the church" and does not belong to any religion.^[19]
• Dave Sim - comics writer and anti-feminist. He converted to, or created, his own mixture of Abrahamic religions.^[20][21]
• Ted Turner - media mogul who stated that he is no longer an atheist or an agnostic. He has not embraced any specific religion.^[22]
• Sir Fred Hoyle - mathematician and astronomer. http://creation.com/big-bang-critic-dies-fred-hoyle

Former agnostics

Agnostics who converted to Christianity

Catholicism

• Sigrid Undset - Norwegian novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928.^[23]

Protestantism

• Ray Comfort - evangelist and author.

Agnostics who converted to Judaism

• Christian B. Anfinsen - Nobel prize-winning chemist who converted from "orthodox agnosticism" to Orthodox Judaism.^[24]

See also

• List of atheists
• List of converts to nontheism
• List of former Jews
• List of former Muslims
• List of former Protestants
• List of former Roman Catholics
• List of former Latter Day Saints
• List of former Christians

References

1. "Media Lab Faculty Biography". MIT Media Lab. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
2. Kerstetter, Jim (February 2, 2013). "Building better Super Bowl ads by watching you watch them". CNET. Retrieved February 3, 2013.
3. Alexis Carrel, The Voyage to Lourdes (New York, Harper & Row, 1939).
4. 1994 Gold Medallion Book Awards Winners – Missions/Evangelism at the Wayback Machine (archived November 2, 2007). ecpa.org
5. Smith, Lisa (September 12, 2007). "Author digs deeper to defend Christianity". Daily Herald. Archived from the original on September 22, 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-05.
6. O'Neil, Patrick M. (2004) Great world writers: 20th century, p. 1400. Marshall Cavendish, ISBN 0-7614-7478-1
7. Haven, Cynthia L., "'A Sacred Vision': An Interview with Czesław Miłosz", in Haven, Cynthia L. (ed.), Czesław Miłosz: Conversations. University Press of Mississippi, 2006, p. 145.
8. Besant, Annie. The Building of the Kosmos and Other Lectures: Delivered at the Eighteenth. The Path, 1894.
9. "John Dobson: Amateur Astronomy's Revolutionary". space.com.
10. Wall Street Journal Article about John
11. Goel, Sita Ram, "How I became a Hindu"
12. ABC Australia.
13. The Australian
14. BBC Interview Quote: "What I was converted to was the existence of an Aristotelian God, and Aristotle's God had no interest in human affairs at all."
15. Moses Hess: The Holy History of Mankind and other writings
16. Christianity Today
17. LA Times
18. Baltimore Sun: My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn't understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me. But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been or might become.
19. Interview with Schulman: "After a thorough analysis of my previous life's experiences, and later experiences that lent validation, I concluded that the reality was that what had happened to me were really encounters with God -- therefore proving God's existence to me."
20. Village Voice
21. Sun Comics
22. "Ted Turner apologizes, joins churches' $200M malaria fight". USA Today. Associated Press. 2008-04-01. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
23. Norwegian Women's Writing 1850–1990 by Janet Garton, Page 125
24. Profile of Anfinsen