Ex-Muslim and Famed Atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali Accepts Christ
"Atheism failed to answer a simple question: what is the meaning and purpose of life?”
Prominent atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali has publicly shared her conversion to Christianity in a compelling piece that highlights the value and veracity of the world’s most prominent religion.
Ali, who grew up in a Somalian community that came under the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood when she was a teenager, is best known for her vocal criticism of Islam and has counted famed atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens as friends.
She explains that her inclusion among these “New Atheists” began in 2002 when she came across a 1927 lecture from Bertrand Russell entitled “Why I Am Not A Christian.”
“It did not cross my mind, as I read it, that one day, nearly a century after he delivered it to the South London branch of the National Secular Society, I would be compelled to write an essay with precisely the opposite title,” she writes in her piece for UnHerd, “Why I am now a Christian.”
She explains that at the time, she became convinced that it was impossible to separate Islam from the violence perpetrated in its name on September 11, 2001, despite what many scholars, journalists, and intellectuals attempted to claim.
When she discovered Russell’s lecture, she believed she had found an escape route from the fear Islam leveraged to capture its adherents, and dismissed all religions as being founded on the same basis.
However, she did not find freedom from fear in atheism.
Ali makes a compelling case for why Christianity is the only way the secularized west can stand against the rise of the “woke” mob and threats from our enemies.
“In this nihilistic vacuum, the challenge before us becomes civilizational,” she writes. “We can’t withstand China, Russia and Iran if we can’t explain to our populations why it matters that we do. We can’t fight woke ideology if we can’t defend the civilisation that it is determined to destroy. And we can’t counter Islamism with purely secular tools. To win the hearts and minds of Muslims here in the West, we have to offer them something more than videos on TikTok.”
“Unless we offer something as meaningful, I fear the erosion of our civilisation will continue. And fortunately, there is no need to look for some new-age concoction of medication and mindfulness,” she also writes. “Christianity has it all.”
However, she also explains that these are not the only reasons she has accepted Christ.
“I have also turned to Christianity because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable — indeed very nearly self-destructive. Atheism failed to answer a simple question: what is the meaning and purpose of life?”
Praise the Lord! Let us pray fervently for Ali as she embraces the faith of the One True God!