Wikipedia Co-Founder's Journey: From Skepticism To Faith

Early this month, Larry Sanger announced that he had come to Christ. We should rejoice when anyone becomes a Christian, but this conversion is especially interesting. Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia, is another in a notable line of skeptics who have recently become believers--or are well on their way to faith.

Sanger's background makes him a seemingly unlikely convert. As he put it when describing his testimony:

"Throughout my adult life, I have been a devotee of rationality, methodological skepticism, and a somewhat hard-nosed and no-nonsense (but always open-minded) rigor. I have a Ph.D. in philosophy, my training being in analytic philosophy, a field dominated by atheists and agnostics. Once, I slummed about the fringes of the Ayn Rand community, which is also heavily atheist. So, old friends and colleagues who lost touch might be surprised."

Sanger's full story is worth reading. It is that of a highly intelligent man coming to terms with Truth after years of wandering through academia, famously penning skeptical blogs and essays about morality, good, evil, the West, and God. At one time, Sanger decided to start reading the Bible--not to find God, but because he was "trained as a close reader of difficult texts," and he wanted to "understand it properly."

But what he discovered was more than a literary exercise. As he read, he found himself confronted with a text that refused to be dismissed. The wisdom of Scripture, its coherence, its answers to the deepest questions of life--all of it began to challenge the assumptions he had long held. 

Like C.S. Lewis, another reluctant convert, Sanger found that the Bible could sustain the interrogation of all his critical questions. He slowly began experimenting with "talking to God," and reading through apologetic works that put God the Creator in the middle of even the more complex realities of the cosmos and science.

Though Sanger is a prominent figure with a mind like an Oxford mathematician the likes of John Lennox, his conversion is a familiar one. He grew up in a Christian home where church attendance and prayer were a normal part of life. Like any kid, he had questions about his faith. He looked at the lives of the people around him, and they didn't always live up to their claims. He brought concerns to a church leader, and instead of engaging with the young man, the teacher dismissed him. So many journeys away from Christianity begin with a similar dismissal.

So, Sanger's questions resolved into strong doubts. He never embraced fully-fledged atheism, and he frankly found many atheistic arguments uncompelling. But he did become agnostic, on the logic that since at least the type of Christianity he'd been taught didn't provide the answers to the questions he thought mattered, skepticism seemed a better way than faith.

Yet, over the years, various life experiences like marriage and fatherhood (he even had his children reading the same Bible he did not believe in as a "book" to study), as well as his own innate curiosity, led him back to where he'd begun. One of the most helpful things for him was the apologetics website, GotQuestions.org, a great resource for anyone on that same path as Sanger. He was genuinely surprised to find that there were Christians out there who'd been sharing answers for centuries.

In honest engagement with arguments for belief in God, but most of all a straightforward reading of the Bible for himself, he came to see that Christianity really did have good and sufficient reasons behind it. Better reasons, in fact, than the doubt he'd depended on for years. He wrestled with the historicity of Christ's resurrection, the philosophical underpinnings of the moral law, and the impossibility of a universe arising from nothing. Bit by bit, the walls of doubt crumbled, and in their place, faith stood firm.

Testimonies like this are inspiring. They remind us that no one is too far gone for God to bring back. They're also a reminder of the value of apologetics, which is not meant to be practiced only by a few brainy podcasters and theologians. It is, in fact, a great tool that God uses to bring His people in and to nourish them once they've arrived.

Sanger's story, that of a young believer-turned skeptic-turned agnostic-turned believer again, underscores the importance of ministries like Summit, Worldview Academy, and GotQuestions.org. These groups are great resources for parents and grandparents when kids have questions about Christianity. Curious, skeptical, and even cynical questions need teachers--apologists--who not only can respond with biblical truth but who can offer confidence to live as Christians.

Apologetics was instrumental in Sanger's conversion because it provided answers where before there had been silence. It reminded him that Christianity is not an empty tradition or an arbitrary belief system, but a worldview that stands up to scrutiny, provides a foundation for morality, and gives life ultimate meaning. His story is a testament to the power of reasoned faith and the necessity of defending the truth.

Despite what the world around us says, we really do have reason to believe.