Yes & No. But Rand's philosophy wasn't the cause for the change.

No - When I first read Atlas Shrugged,during my freshman year of college, I was not much of anything.

Yes - After reading Atlas Shrugged and most of Ayn Rand's other writing as well as the Bible and many other writings, I came to appreciate the value of Jesus Christ and how His example serves as a model of how Love and Compassion can make life work better. Most persons regard themselves as Christian without understanding what that means thereby poisoning the well for most thinking people!.

No and no

No and no. I wasn't even raised religious.

No. No.

I have however "converted" a few Christians to Objectivism over the years.... ;-)

I was once, but then I met a priest and realized if he didn't really believe the BS why should I? So no and no.

And thinking of scientific proof, I met a Christian who told me he heard the funniest joke: "Can God make a rock so big he can't lift it?" When he told me that I was stunned because right in his joke he expressed the impossibility of the whole concept of God.

Yes, but proof and evidence is not the same thing. Again, prove to me the sun will rise tomorrow.

You cannot prove that at all. Only reference things you know and/or have seen. "the evident demonstration of reality though not beheld."

I do not disagree at all. However just because something is not seen, does mean it does not exist either.

No, even though I had a "Christian" upbringing. Even at a young age I was always amused by the blatant evasions of any difficult question with answers like "it is Gods will" or "God works in mysterious ways".
I now recognize that some people find comfort in their religious beliefs, so I just treat them with respect while not concurring. I support anyone's freedom to believe whatever they want. Just as a side note, it is also refreshing but unfortunately quite rare, to find a religious person who shows the same respect for a non-believers beliefs.

We use the word "faith" in many ways including non-religious, which causes problems when defining the word in a specific context. Your examples mix up the different usage of the word. When talking about the distinction between faith and reason, if in some context there is proof, then we can apply reason and there is no need for faith. In that sense of the word, then the meaning of "faith" is belief without proof.

I've always been a Christian, or at least thought I was. I was baptized a Lutheran as a child. I do not practice any religion anymore, I kind of quit Sunday's after I passed out in a church around age 16 and hit my head. I've been married in a church, actually twice, and the third time in my home by a judge. The judge must have done a better job. I've prayed a few times, but mostly, and especially, in Vietnam. I can attest to the fact that there are no atheists in battle. I'm a very scientific person, wanting to know how everything works. I do not believe in the biblical concept of how man came to be, but also do not deny it. I guess that would make me more of an agnostic. An agnostic says, “I don't have a knowledge that God exists.” And I am definitely not an atheist. An atheist says, “I don't have a belief that God exists.” But above all I believe in the concepts of a good religion and the bible. And I believe some people need to be exposed to it to get the message. What other way can they learn? It sets a standard that anyone should follow.

See, I also believe there is nothing as a simple answer either. Ayn Rand was real, real person, a real soul. I'm not sure her outlook on the facts of life made her a very happy person. At least she did and took what she wanted in life. We can't ask for much more than that.

"...faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true"

Alma 32:21 in the book of Mormon.

Regardless of if you are another christian denomination, or even atheist Alma 32 of the book of Mormon defines faith more clearly than anything else I have ever read. It even gives a basic guide for development faith into knowledge and is very similar to scientific process.

Yes and Yes...I was a church going Catholic before and after reading her work. In the last 5 years I just have not felt the "urge" to attend Mass.

I thought there was some problem with the pass-
word a few minutes ago, and I was starting to use
the Backspace key, but then I was shown this page
again, so I answered the question.

No. I never have been.
2. No.

No, and No.

Before I found the philosophy of Ayn Rand, I
was a sort of deist, or pantheist, which I no longer am.

Yes
2. Yes

No
2. No

However, I was raised as a baptist/methodist, and as a boy I was a christian. I was married in a catholic ceremony, and promised to educate my kids as catholics, although agnostic by then. My first wife (yes the catholic) divorced me. I transitioned from agnostic to atheist, which was really just being decisive. My kids have watched, learned and figured out the fairy tale as well. They are both athiests, much to the chagrin of their grandmother.

Ayn did not change my mind on religion, but I am tremendously pleased she arrived at the same conclusion I did.

I was raised catholic. In 2nd grade I made a deal with god that if I prayed every day for a month and if he loved me like they said, god would give me a dump truck toy and put it in the attic. After a month, I went to the attic and NO dump truck. I concluded that IF there was an all powerful god, it wasnt into the loving thing, so I better do what it said or I was in for trouble. That lasted until the catholic church offered that one would be given a chance to repent for all sins just before dying- IF that person had received communion for 9 consecutive first fridays of the month. I took them up on it, and then didnt fear the god anymore. Then I went to college and was exposed more and more to stupidity of thinking there was this god in the first place. Never had anything to do with catholic church or any other ever since. Did Ayn Rand help in that? To a degree, but I was pretty much there on my own. A good expose on religion was done by (of all people) Bill Mayer in his documentary Religulous. I saw it the other day and really cant even believe people accept these crazy ideas about their being a god.

No and No.
A deist, yes. But there is a clear difference.

1) I was raised as a Catholic so yes.

2) I still believe in Christ and the saints, but my notion of my religion and of of God is very different.

VetteGuy,

Thank you for your comment. Here is where the difference is, and this is where many differ. I personally do believe that the Bible is the Word of God. Having said that, I also believe the accounts as written are accurate, for example the parting of the Red Sea, the Plagues of Egypt, the fall of the Walls of Jericho, and all of the other accounts in the Bible, but that were also recorded by secular historians like Flavious Josephus.

Neither you or I were around 3,000 years ago, however the accounts of Hailey's Comet have been recorded by people we never met who some might argu never really existed and their writings were mis translated through time, however, WE have seen Haley's comet and KNOW is will come around every 76 years, and has been recorded as such for many centuries.

As I have posted, I observed the PERFECT mathematical precision, and timing of all things universal, from the rotation of each planet around our Solar System, to the specific angle of tilt the earth has that allows for life to actually exist. 10' either way in rotation and we would fly off into space or crash into the sun.

I could write a 10,000 page dissertation on all the things that are perfectly positioned just for life to exist on Earth that, based on all I have studied, cannot attribute to a "Big Bang" but to God, or Intelligent Design, or Creation by Giant Green Men, but certainly not by accident in any way shape or form.

When I talk about proof, it is based on observation of all things around me, just like the Sun rising and the Moon orbiting the Earth, and the tides coming and going based on the NON-PROVABLE field of gravity we KNOW exists and see the evidence of.

Just like NOBODY can prove the sun will rise in the morning as I stated, nobody can Prove God Exists. We can only point to the observable measurable things and conclude based on that, that there must be a creator.

Edited for spelling

Yes. Yes.

Fearing God is good because it saves us from caving into our own sinful nature. That's why hearing someone is God-fearing actually makes us trust that person more. If they fear God they are more likely to keep their word and trust others with kindnes.Romans 3, a classic chapter on sin, says that our chief sin is that we "have no fear of God at all". Rom.3:18.Many of us presume that the world is the ultimate threat and that God's function is to offset it How different this is from the biblical position that God is far scarier than the world. When we assume that the world is the ultimate threat, we give it unwarranted power, for the truth, the worlds threats are temporary. When we expect God to balance the stress of the world, we reduce Him to the world's equal. As I walk with the Lord, I discover that God poses an ominous threat to my ego, but not to me. He rescues me so that He may reveal the truth that sets me free. He casts me down only to lift me back up again.He sits in judgment of my sin, but forgives me nevertheless. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but love from the Lord is its completion.

Although I was raised as a Christian, by the time that I read Atlas shrugged, shortly after it came out, I had already decided that I was an agnostic. After ~58 years, I still am.