3. Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The New Atheist Who Chose Christianity
Perhaps no recent conversion has sparked more conversation than that of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. A Somali-Dutch activist who left Islam, she became a prominent and outspoken atheist. Hirsi Ali was so influential she was described by some as the unofficial “fifth horseman” of New Atheism, alongside Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, and Harris.
In 2023, she published an essay titled “Why I Am Now a Christian,“ a conscious echo of Bertrand Russell’s famous 1927 essay “Why I Am Not a Christian.” Her reasons were both cultural and deeply personal. She concluded that atheism had failed to provide what she needed: a framework for meaning, moral grounding, and spiritual solace.
“I have also turned to Christianity because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable — indeed very nearly self-destructive.” — Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Her conversion drew enormous attention, debate, and criticism from former allies. It also sparked genuine curiosity in people who had followed her atheist writing for years.
Key takeaway: Hirsi Ali’s story is especially powerful for skeptics who respect intellectual credibility above all. Sometimes the most compelling evangelism is a public figure asking the same questions your neighbor is quietly asking.
4. Larry Sanger: The Wikipedia Co-Founder Who Ran Out of Reasons Not To Believe
Larry Sanger spent his career building one of humanity’s greatest repositories of knowledge and 35 years refusing to believe in God. As co-founder of Wikipedia, the philosopher-turned-internet-pioneer prided himself on rigorous, evidence-based thinking. His personal creed was what he called “methodical skepticism”: reject any belief that cannot be known with certainty. For most of his adult life, that framework excluded faith entirely.
Sanger grew up in a Lutheran household, was confirmed at 12, and lost his belief by his mid-teens—partly because a pastor dismissed his questions with contempt rather than engaging them. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy from Ohio State, entering a field he described as dominated by atheists and agnostics. He wasn’t a hostile unbeliever, though. He described himself, not as an enemy of Christianity, but simply as unconvinced. He was always, critically, open to following evidence wherever it led.
That openness eventually proved decisive. His reasons for disbelief began falling away one by one. He found New Atheism increasingly obnoxious. He noticed that Christians online consistently behaved with more grace than their critics. He began reading the Bible seriously in 2019—not as an act of faith, but as a philosophical exercise—and was stopped cold by what he found.
“I found the Bible far more interesting and—to my shock and consternation—coherent than I was expecting,” he wrote. “The Bible could withstand interrogation. Who knew?”
By early 2020, after reading the four Gospels, Sanger reached a turning point. In February 2025, he went public: “It is finally time for me to confess and explain, fully and publicly, that I am a Christian.” He is now writing a book titled “God Exists: A Philosophical Case for the Christian God,” the skeptic’s ultimate about-face.
“I spent over 35 years as a nonbeliever. I especially hope to reach those who are as I once was: rational thinkers who are perhaps open to the idea, but simply not convinced.” — Larry Sanger
Key takeaway: Sanger’s story begins with a pastor who dismissed a teenager’s questions and ends with that same teenager building a philosophical case for Christianity. Welcome questions. Take skeptics seriously. The cost of not doing so can be decades.
