While trying to fathom what turns one to become an atheist, I found the following anecdotes in the internet about Steve Jobs.
EXCERPT 1:
Even though they were not fervent about their faith, Jobs’s
parents wanted him to have a religious upbringing, so they took him to
the Lutheran church most Sundays. That came to an end when he was
thirteen. In July 1968 “Life” magazine published a shocking cover
showing a pair of starving children in Biafra. Jobs took it to Sunday
school and confronted the church’s pastor. “If I raise my finger, will
God know which one I’m going to raise even before I do it?
The pastor answered, “Yes, God knows everything.”
Jobs then pulled out the “Life” cover and asked, “Well, does God know about this and what’s going to happen to those children?”
“Steve, I know you don’t understand, but yes, God knows about that.”
Jobs announced that he didn’t want to have anything to do with worshipping such a God, and he never went back to church.
It is really curious how atheists, especially famous philanthropists, turn to be atheists. Do they believe that amassing wealth, or possessing the ingenuity to amass such make them above any god? If somebody was able to answer Jobs that question he had posed, answer in a logical manner, and follow up to prove the love of God, could things have been different? How could you prove that when you're shown pictures of starving children in Biafra or elsewhere? Maybe, he should have been asked to sit down with the pastor, if the pastor really knew how to answer beyond simply saying "yes, God knows everything." This coupled with unceasing prayers, who knows, Jobs could have turned his life around.
EXCERPT 2:
"[One afternoon we] were sitting in his backyard ... and he was not in the best of health at the time. ... He said, 'You know, I'm kind of 50/50 on believing in God.
But I want to believe that something endures, that your wisdom that you
accumulate, that the knowledge that you have somehow is able to endure
after you die.'
"And then he pauses, and he says, 'Maybe that's just wishful
thinking. Maybe that's just like an on-off switch.' And he goes, 'Click,
you're off. You're gone. It's over.' And then he paused for a moment
and he said, 'Maybe that's why I didn't like to put on-off switches on
Apple devices.' "
Doubt could be the beginning of conversion. But no one reached out to him for the Light. Sad.
