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Screwtape: Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours— and the more “religious” (on those terms) the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here

C. S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters # VII

At Instapundit there were two different stories of promanent athiests becoming Christian. The first was Ayaan Hirsi Ali who said this:

But we can’t fight off these formidable forces unless we can answer the question: what is it that unites us? The response that “God is dead!” seems insufficient. So, too, does the attempt to find solace in “the rules-based liberal international order”. The only credible answer, I believe, lies in our desire to uphold the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

This is the first reason she give noting that all the secular freedoms that are enjoyed by Western Civilization come from Christianity but that’s not enough. She notes the unifying effect of a belief in God in her closing here:

The lesson I learned from my years with the Muslim Brotherhood was the power of a unifying story, embedded in the foundational texts of Islam, to attract, engage and mobilise the Muslim masses. Unless we offer something as meaningful, I fear the erosion of our civilisation will continue. And fortunately, there is no need to look for some new-age concoction of medication and mindfulness. Christianity has it all.

That is why I no longer consider myself a Muslim apostate, but a lapsed atheist. Of course, I still have a great deal to learn about Christianity. I discover a little more at church each Sunday. But I have recognised, in my own long journey through a wilderness of fear and self-doubt, that there is a better way to manage the challenges of existence than either Islam or unbelief had to offer.

The discovering a little more each Sunday is a start and people have to walk before they run but let me point out that as a Christian in general and a Catholic in particular let me unequally state the following:

There is only one reason to be a Christian, not for the history of civilization , not to defend the west, not to oppose radical Islam. None of these reasons are a reason to be a Christian.

The only reason to be a Christian in general and a Catholic in particular is Because it is True

If it is true we are obliged to do our best to combat our fallen human nature to follow Christ. To go to Mass and to spread the good news by deed, word and example.

If it is not true then on Sunday you’re basically going to an elk’s club meeting.

Now there is nothing wrong with an elks club but one should not base their worldview upon it.

As she notes she is learning, I find that the best thing to do is pray for people and let the Holy Spirit do the heavy lifting here. In the end I’m not going to devote my life to one.

Now note the contrast with Professor Picard as an engineer her journey was more about facts and evidence:

Note how she approached this on the evidence. She went from Athiest, to Agnostic, to Theist, to Christian. It’s as if she read Mere Christianity and applied Lewis’ argument.

Now for me it doesn’t matter in the end how someone finds Christ as long as they do so and even for screwtape notes that the primary goal is to get the person moving in the right (in his case the wrong) direction and different people move on that path at different speeds. But the big thing to remember is this: Never think for one moment that God can be used as an means to an end rather than an end itself.

That’s the danger. Remember it and avoid it.