Remember, not everyone is an atheist for intellectual reasons; or at least not intellectual reasons alone. This is where personal testimony can offer a powerful evangelization tool. We need to connect not just with people’s heads, but also their hearts. Because of this, sharing conversion stories of people who’ve escaped skepticism to become Catholic can provide that extra little nudge a person needs to begin considering the claims of Jesus Christ.
Perhaps you have your own story. If you have never considered yourself to be a religious skeptic, perhaps you’ve had times when you’ve struggled with, or questioned, your religious beliefs. Consider writing down these experiences and developing a two or three minute witness of how you overcame these difficulties and eventually came to a greater belief in—and stronger relationship with—God, because of them. For help in doing this, check out “Introduction to Christian Testimony,” lesson three of the Introduction to Evangelization course, if you have not already done so.
To offer some further inspiration, here are a few testimonies. The story of the instructor for this lesson, Pat Flynn, is included in the intro as well as in the video portion of this lesson segment, so let’s look at the stories of a few others.
Personal Story 1 – John Nguyen
I was born a cradle Catholic. My family went to Mass every Sunday and since I was underage, I did what my parents asked of me; so I went. I didn’t really listen to the sermons much. I didn’t pay attention to the Mass. Maybe around junior high, I started to sneak out of Mass to go play video games at the donut store and then I’d come back before Mass ended. That was the extent of my faith. I don’t think I can say that I believed in God. It was more of, “I don’t know and I can’t prove or tell that there is one. If there is a God, He’s not relevant to me in my life.” My purpose in life as a teenager was to go to school, study, to have fun here and there—just to live the ordinary life that I was living.
When I got to college, I started to question the purpose and meaning of life. “Why was I doing this work, studying, etc.? What would become of me even when I become successful? Even if I had a family, would that fulfill me?” I had these thoughts of, “I don’t know, I still think something is missing.” I’d think about the evil in the world on the news and even among friends, relatives and family. How could people do such things if there was a “Good God?” During this time in college, I fell into depression. At one point, I thought in my mind, “if there is a God who is all powerful, omniscient who can read my mind, why doesn’t He do something?” That was pretty much my prayer.
I don’t know if it was the day or the morning after, but all of a sudden, something happened to me that I can’t fully explain: God’s presence just came upon me in an extraordinary way. I was filled with this peace that I had never experienced in my whole life. There was this assurance deep within my being that everything was going to be ok. I didn’t know even at that point that it was God or not. I went on the Internet and began to read about Christianity and God. It kind of made sense to me so I started to pursue that. I got involved with young adult ministry and a lot of my questions were answered. At one point, I decided that “I think that Jesus, what He says, what He teaches, is true and that the Catholic Church is also true.” So I was confirmed, and entered the Church. It was a beautiful experience as a young adult around 26.
From that point on, I began to really grow: from bad habits and even destructive thinking to turning towards goodness and even healing in so many ways in my heart and in my life. I began to look towards the goodness of other people, and serving people and loving people. That included loving my family and connecting with them more. The fruits of all these things, and even service to God and to His people, began to fill me with a peace that I never had in my whole life, short of that one powerful experience. It was a really rich and deep peace, a rich and deep joy, a lasting joy that the world can’t give. I truly believe and just know that God exists, using my reason, my heart; [and] the things that I see and experience. It’s an amazing thing and I want this for all people: to believe in God and to believe in Jesus.
Personal Story 2 – Christine Flynn
I grew up in the Bible Belt with parents who were born and raised in New York. Living in the Bible Belt, very Protestant, a lot of talk about Jesus being your personal Lord and Savior, and a lot of talk about eternal damnation and the rapture, coupled with my parents’ former Catholicism and general dismal view of the Catholic Church, made myself just eschew religion entirely for most of my life. But, as most people, I had a lot of questions about who I was, and what was the point of it all, and why was I here and where was I going afterwards? So, without any proper guidance, I wound up just attaching myself to anything that seemed transcendent in some way. So, reincarnation, dream interpretation, tarot cards, the Ouija boards, you name it, I did it, and was interested in it. I thought that the more I read about New Age spirituality and got interested in it, the more likely it was that I was one of those lucky few who got to “peek behind the veil” and see things about the universe that not very many people got to know. A lot of this spiritual superiority came with a lot of moral subjectivity. I wound up doing a lot of damage to myself and others during this time because there wasn’t any objective right or wrong; I could change whatever I thought was right or wrong, on a daily basis if I wanted to.
But, as the years went on, and there were personal tragedies, global tragedies, family members’ suicides, friends dying in horrific car accidents, to 9-11 and tsunamis, I started wondering if my previous idea [was true:] of this amalgamation of bad Star Wars philosophy and poorly studied Eastern religions, that there was this balance of right and wrong in the world and good and evil and maybe there wasn’t any balance at all, and maybe there wasn’t any good or there wasn’t an evil. [I thought] maybe we were all just a haphazard collection of atoms whizzing through the universe for no apparent reason. So, I eventually, after spending so many years as a spiritual so-and-so, despaired and wound up being an atheist.
But, at the same time, when all hope about my future and where we were going was lost, I became a mother. Realizing I was spending so much time loving my child, spending time with him, reading to him, changing diapers … to think that in 100 years we would be dead and dust was really depressing and so I became very hopeful that maybe there was something more there. So, while I began to hope that there was something more and some reason—transcendent love and reason that I wanted to be with my children and share this life with them—my husband actually converted to the Faith, or began to, and even though I said that there was no way that I would ever become Christian, and certainly not Catholic, I did agree to start learning about Jesus and little bit more — and go beyond the ways that I’d heard of Him as a youth, which was very pop-culture, He’s your “buddy,” versus He’s also going to allow you to become a slave of Satan for a 1000 years. So, I started actually looking at who the historical Jesus was and started learning about Catholicism.
What I found was that what I always thought (that the Catholic Church was kind of a “middle-man” that kept people from a direct relationship with God) was quite the opposite. So, I wound up doing a lot of research, doing a lot of reading, a lot of praying—which seemed very awkward and weird at first for me to do, but I wound up deciding that the Catholic Church was actually the one truth Faith. I started going to Church, [and] talked to the religious sister who was in charge of adult faith formation at my parish. I decided to take those first steps toward Baptism, and, eventually, to Confirmation. It’s changed everything: my marriage has gotten better, I’ve been a better mother, even just a better friend. I’ve taken on people’s sufferings whereas before I would have just completely ignored them. Everything about my life — though it’s been harder in some ways because I’m held to a standard that I never would have been held to before — has really improved and become much richer than it ever was, even when I thought that I was in charge of my life and could make the rules for my own morality.
Personal Story 3 – Eric Bachmann
I used to be an atheist. I converted in 2012 to Catholicism. I didn’t grow up with any Catholic or faith background. I was baptized Catholic but that was the extent of my Catholic upbringing. Over time, I kind of developed a bitterness to Christianity, specifically in college I was being asked to go to Mass and I never went but it definitely stirred in me this bitterness to prove Christianity wrong. I took an “Intro to Christian Thought” class, I read C.S. Lewis, I read St. Augustine, Pilgrim’s Progress and a bunch of other pieces. I didn’t stop when the course was over. I wasn’t reading to learn so that I could prove it right, I was reading to learn to prove it wrong. I had a very hardened heart.
Slowly, over time, as I kept continuing on after this course, listening to podcasts, listening to interviews with atheists and Christians, I started to think that maybe this could be true. Eventually, I started to think that this is true but I needed more proof. After that, I actually sat down with five pastors of five different types of churches, including a Catholic priest. I decided to go through RCIA not to become Catholic but to learn more. I became Catholic but still struggled with a lot of doubt. Eventually, I witnessed a miracle that happened.
I actually went downtown Detroit with the Companions of the Cross, a group of seminarians that were going to go pray for people in the city of Detroit. A seminarian named Dan and myself met a guy with a brace on his arm. Dan said, “I think Jesus wants to heal your arm. Can we pray for you?” The guy kind of shook his head and said, “Sure, whatever.” We ended up praying over him right there on the street. The first time we prayed over him, nothing happened. The second time around, we prayed for him again, we got done and Dan said, “Try to move your arm.” The guy picked up his hand, it was shaking, and he looked up at us and said, “Man, that’s crazy!” From right there, I witnessed a miracle happen. It really went from head to heart eventually, all the things that I was trying to prove in my mind that I just couldn’t fully grasp the idea of faith, really just kind of brought me to that next level. God’s been giving me more ever since.
I think, for me, at least before entering in or growing in my faith, I was always chasing something, whatever that may be. It could be security, a job, marriage, kids, a house—whatever the number of things that I felt “once I get there, once I capture what I’ve been chasing, then I would be fulfilled.” It was kind of a “butterfly existence” where I’m hopping from one thing to another. Whenever I got there, whatever it was, there always seemed like there was a gap. If I’m honest, it was a little bit of disappointment that whatever I was chasing never quite lived up to what I thought it would be. Fulton Sheen describes this “gap.” I was listening to him in a podcast and reading a book wherein he says that we have this “disappointment” and it comes from the fact that we are searching for something. When we put that future ideal out there, we infused into it something of the infinity within our heart. Yet, we’re stuck on earth. We have infinity on our heart, we have eternity on our mind and our soul and we’re stuck in this world that’s cribbed, cabin-confined and this tremendous disproportion occurs creating that disappointment. When I found God, I felt like there was a way I could finally rest, and know that there is more, and that quenching of my heart can never be served by anything on this earth. It can only be served or fulfilled through eternity, which is what I’m [now] questing and going for.
Conclusion
The personal testimony of a former atheist or skeptic can be a powerful evangelization tool when bearing witness to atheists. But other kinds of testimonies can be powerful as well. Keep in mind the various kinds of atheists and their various motivations. You don’t have to be a former atheist or religious skeptic for your personal testimony to be edifying to atheists. So do your best to speak to the needs of the person before you, but be attentive to the influence of the Holy Spirit—and be ready for anything.