How Wikipedia Co-Founder Found Faith After ’35 Years as a Nonbeliever’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger is sharing how he went from spending “35 years as a nonbeliever” to a Christian.
“It is finally time for me to confess and explain, fully and publicly, that I am a Christian,” he wrote in a blog post earlier this month.
Sanger explained that, to people who knew him before 2020, this might come as a surprise, as he has always been focused on “rationality” and “methodological skepticism.”
“Though I spent over 35 years as a nonbeliever, I will not try to portray myself as a converted ‘enemy of the faith.’ I never was; I was merely a skeptic,” he continued. “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.”
READ MORE: LEE STROBEL AND SHANNON BREAM DISCUSS WHY GOD IS REAL
Sanger shared that he was raised in the church but began to lose his faith as a teenager. After taking a philosophy class in high school, he began questioning everything but decided he “would remain in my disbelief” when it came to God.
“I went through many years without giving much thought to God, Jesus, or the Bible, except as cultural phenomena and as an ongoing philosophical interest,” he continued. However, he slowly began to question his own disbelief, as well as the disbelief of other agnostics and atheists.
Sanger wrote, “The thought slowly dawned on me: maybe, just maybe, I too had been indoctrinated, in a way. Perhaps I had misunderstood things I only thought I had understood. Perhaps I had not been exposed to the best representatives of the faith. In short, perhaps, I had not given Christianity a fair shake.”
He began seriously studying the Bible and talking to God, which he first thought of as “experimental.” Sanger was uncomfortable at first with this newfound faith, but in 2020, he decided he “should admit to myself that I now believe in God.”
In an interview with Sean McDowell, Sanger explained, “My understanding of the evidence and how compelling it was changed…the reasons that I had for disbelief had fallen away. That sort of left me free to consider the proposition neutrally, on its own merits…the preponderance of the evidence seemed to be in favor of the existence of God.”
“I thank God for what share of insight his Word and his faithful servants have given me, as I have studied them; I thank him for the gift of faith that, for most of my life, I never imagined I would have,” Sanger concluded.
Sanger is now sharing his thoughts on theology on his website, SangerFeed. In a recent post, he wrote about having conversations with skeptics.
“In short, my commitment to Christian doctrine does not depend — in the slightest — on my being able to respond to the sorts of objections I used to have,” he explained. “I *can* explain why I no longer find those objections compelling. But I make no guarantees, at all, that my explanations will be brief or even possibly persuasive to skeptics.”
Sanger added, “I mean, yes. I can talk plenty about a defense of miracles. There are many things to say. But constantly focusing on making the most pointed or effective response that ‘speaks to the skeptic where they are’ might actually result in neglect of weightier, more important parts of doctrine.”
READ MORE: HOW MIRACLES THIS ACTOR WITNESSED AS A CHILD INSPIRE HIS FAITH TODAY
- Content: +4Share:
- Content: +1