GREAT article about atheists, agnostics and others being pro-life, by Kristen Hatten.

"I was converted on the basis of human rights, science, and reason...

"Does God frown on you when you embrace a pro-life atheist or does He say, in the immortal words of Dire Straits, “That’s the way you do it”?"

"I’m thinking it’s (something like) the latter, and I personally welcome – and rejoice in – all the pro-lifers. We may disagree about graphic signs, the death penalty, politics, and more, but any friend of the unborn deserves a seat at our table."

Being a friend of the unborn really does mean being a friend of all women, too, despite what Planned Parenthood and N.O.W., et.al, have convinced some to believe.

Hatten's own pro-choice-to-pro-life, as well as agnostic-to-Catholic, conversions are described here, circa 2010-2011?

"You know that friend you have that you don’t even bother mentioning abortion to? The one who is so prickly and such a smarty-pants that you feel like you’d be shot down if you even tried explaining the pro-life viewpoint? I was that friend. And look at me now."

Intelligent reads, both.

Makes me wonder what my friend, The (former) Raving Atheist is up to these days.

Those who are longtime followers of these blogs will remember him, from his lethal, atheist days, and how he came to be first a true friend and defender of all us here, and then, in December 2008, a convert to Catholicism himself.

Elizabeth Esther does a wonderful job of interviewing the now Raving Theist and mapping out the whole story, even linking to our blog here:

Gentle & Reasonable
RT nevertheless continued his atheistic ravings full-force. In early 2003, he engaged in a particularly venomous exchange with an online Catholic scholar over Thomas Aquinas' "first cause" argument. In a later, conciliatory gesture, he linked to a post-abortion healing blog favored by his religious adversary–an act which brought him into contact with a group of pro-life advocates whose selfless dedication to their cause moved him deeply.

He was inspired by their gentle and reasonable writings, particularly the story of one woman: Ashli McCall. She wrote with painful honesty about how her late-term abortion terribly affected her. Ashli channeled her suffering into efforts to help women in similar situations and save them from the fall-out of abortion. Eventually, she asked for his assistance in some of her pro-life work.

So, when Ashli gave birth to a healthy baby girl on Mother's Day 2004, RT decided to use the occasion to announce that The Raving Atheist would become, in part, a pro-life blog.

Christians who showed him Christ
This decision stirred an angry mutiny among his readers. But RT had become convinced that the secular world had it wrong on a very foundational issue: life.

With Ashli's encouragement he began volunteering at a Crisis Pregnancy Center. Suddenly, he was surrounded by life. Here were people who were kind, loving and who lived out their faith in a very tangible way. The pictures on the walls confirmed this. Smiling babies were everywhere.  The tangible expression of pro-life work was life itself.

It was becoming clear to RT that people who lived out their Christian faith were happier and better people as a result.

A slow change of heart
Despite this evidence, RT maintained a lingering intellectual attachment to atheism. In late 2004 he organized a blog interview with the best-selling atheist author, Sam Harris ('The End of Faith'). Assisting in the questioning was filmmaker Brian Flemming. This association led both RT and Harris to appear the next year in Flemming's anti-Christian documentary, "The God Who Wasn't There."

RT attended the documentary's New York premiere. At the end of a subsequent summertime showing in the city, however, he found his atheistic enthusiasm waning. The appearance of his pseudonym in the credits inspired less pride than he expected.

As the lights turned on, he felt alienated from the audience and its contemptuous, anti-religious laughter. He briefly considered joining a small group that had formed to discuss the film over dinner and he followed them for several blocks while debating whether to invite himself.

But halfway across a darkened, midtown street, he walked away.

To the love of Christ
That fall [2005], RT began a friendship with a Catholic blogger, Dawn Eden. He frequently guest posted on her site about pro-life issues.

That September, I also had received an email from Dawn, another long-time friend of our blogs, asking me about The Raving Atheist (TRA, as we called him then). She wanted to know about my email to him and his publishing of it on his blog in May 2004. She wanted to know if he had asked permission to publish it (he had, and had given me full revision rights beforehand), was I glad he published it (yes), did I think he was sincere in his dialogues with us "theists"? (yes)

I'm not sure if Dawn's email to me and my reply preceded her friendship starting with RT/TRA or if she was already initiating their friendship. I do know my email to him being published the year before was of great interest to her, as she herself had recently converted from Judaism to Catholicism, and this was the result of her initial interest.

Elizabeth Esther's interview continues:

He also continued working on certain "hard cases" with Ashli. Near Thanksgiving of 2005, Ashli opened her heart (and home) to a stranger coping with a particularly difficult and tumultuous pregnancy. RT, Dawn Eden and other bloggers came together on this woman's behalf.

In June 2006, RT saw the woman's sonogram, which he linked to on his blog, ripen into a baby. In honor of Ashli's efforts, he vowed that the birth of the child would spell the death of atheism on his blog. Late that month he announced that he would no longer mock God on his site.

Although still a doubter, RT's subsequent posts entertained the possibility of God. Soon he asked to join Dawn Eden at church and at her suggestion, engaged in daily prayer. He still didn't believe in God, but he wanted to change. He wanted the deep, abiding joy he'd observed in his pro-life Christian friends.

In time, RT found it impossible to believe that the universe was created out of nothing. There was order, direction and love. Those things all pointed to some larger, unfathomable consciousness. He realized he could not believe that human hearts and minds came into being randomly.

RT's eyes also opened to the core truth of Christianity. Whereas he had formerly concurred with Nietzsche's appraisal of the faith as a "slave's philosophy," a cruel celebration of senseless suffering, his experiences brought him to appreciate the nobler meaning of sacrifices made for the sake of life.

TRA became TRT, converting to Catholicism in 2008, and he would be the first to admit that none of us here tried to proselytize him.

This is quite a trend he started, eh?

Atheist blogger Leah Libresco converted to Catholicism in 2012.Her first post about her conversion is here.

Atheist blogger Jen Fulwiler converted to Catholicism in 2010.

Just a little bit amazing, don't you think, that four separate atheists/agnostics would all, independently, Do Their Own Research and come, intellectually, philosophically, experientially, to the same exact, most diametrically-opposite and impossible conclusion?