Monday 1 October 2007

Baptist minister converts to Judaism, says "Thank God for atheists"

Chris Miller's "Unquiet Desperation" is an occasional podcast on eclectic subjects. Recently he aired an interview with an old friend of his, Bill Carter, who converted from Southern Baptist to Judaism. In Chris's words:
  • There are endless tales out there about folks who have converted to Christianity from some other religion, but you rarely hear about someone converting away from Christianity, unless it’s to atheism. In this episode of Unquiet Desperation, we meet Bill Carter, and old friend who has, after much thought and soul searching, converted from Christianity to Judaism. He tells us about his thought process, his reasons for doing so, and how his life has changed because of his conversion.
In the last five minutes of this 80 minute interview Bill Carter makes an odd comment, "Thank God for atheists," using a strangely incongruous example of giving help to a homeless street-person. It's almost a direct inverse of the "atheists have no basis for morality" argument.

Unquiet Desperation:
http://unquietdesperation.com/

Audio here (83'42", 76.6 MB).