In a conversation that covered the occult, AI singularity, the New Atheists, and philosophical arguments for the existence of God, Wikipedia cofounder Dr. Larry Sanger shared with Christian hip hop artist Lecrae how Sanger went from being a “methodological skeptic” to a believer in orthodox Christianity.
“In 2020 I read the Bible through for the first time, all the way through for good understanding, which I’d never done before,” Sanger told Lecrae in a conversation published Thursday, May 8. “And to get ahead of ourselves a little bit, it transformed my life. And that was five years ago, but I put off actually making an announcement about it, telling the story, because I wanted to be ready to contend for the kingdom, forcefully.”
Larry Sanger: Many Pastors Struggle With Philosophical Questions
In addition to being a cofounder of Wikipedia, Larry Sanger is a philosopher and internet project developer. On Feb. 5, he published a lengthy article on his blog, titled, “How a Skeptical Philosopher Becomes a Christian.” In it, he detailed the events and thought processes that led him out of agnosticism to belief in God and, eventually, a belief in the orthodox Christian faith.
Sanger has his Ph.D. in philosophy and in his youth was interested in developing his own philosophical system.
Lecrae began their conversation saying, “I’m very excited today because I get to nerd out a little bit.” Lecrae shares Sanger’s love of philosophy and said he could relate to other points of Sanger’s story, such as wrestling with the concept of morality as a teenager.
RELATED: Lecrae Addresses Criticisms Related to Diddy Parties, Abortion, And Politics
“I came into the faith as a skeptic, which is why your story is particularly interesting to me,” Lecrae told Sanger.
Sanger was raised in the Lutheran Church but fell away from spiritual practices when his family stopped going to church after his parents’ divorce. He said that around the age of 15 or 16, “It just occurred to me, I don’t really believe in God anymore.”
Sanger came to a point where he decided he wanted to become a philosopher and pursue objective truth. He became a “methodological skeptic,” meaning “not that I didn’t believe anything, period, but that I would withhold judgment on things…until I had come to a rational conclusion about the question.”
