Deconversion Letters

A few excerpts from short letters of former believers.

---

I went to bible college, majored in Religion & Philosophy, became ordained to the ministry, spent two years in missionary work…

I am no longer a Christian. My conversion from faith was painful and slow, and I think I have learned some things about why religion is so powerful.

My whole frame of reality had to be restructured. The whole fabric of existence seeemed to tear to shreds. Yet it was a very positive experience, motivated by reason and nothing else.

[ view ]

---

So any questions I might have had were because God was so intelligent and far above me that I couldn’t understand what he was saying. I only began soul-searching when my friend (now husband) began asking me questions that I couldn’t answer.

I’m far freer and happier than I was in my guilt-inducing Bible days.

[ view ]

The Skeptic Community Welcomes Another

The following is a post I found on the blog Unreasonable Faith. It is refreshing to see how older skeptics have offered support and encouragement to younger skeptics just emerging from a variety of faiths. The number of intelligent young deconverts who are leaving their faiths for reasons well-considered is quite exciting. I recommend reading the original post and comments found at the link below.

---

Coming Out of the Skeptical Closet

Hi everyone. I’m the student who wrote the letter posted above. I wanted to thank you all for your tremendous support. I wrote this letter to Daniel late last night, curious for his and the community’s responses. I had expected only a few comments, but I was totally surprised to see close to 100 replies!

As I had mentioned before, losing my community troubles me the most. I’m comforted to see that others have traveled along this same path. I’ll look into charitable organizations. Upon some of your suggestions, I might even try an atheist/agnostic group once I get out of school. Who knows, there may be a group for ex-Christians in my area since I’m in the Bible Belt.

There’s one important thing I’ve learned in my deconversion process that I forgot to mention in my letter.

A Young Deconvert

Last week, a bright young former Evangelical who has recently garnered quite a bit of attention on Youtube invited viewers to send him questions. So I asked him “What emotional ties to Christianity made it most difficult to deconvert?” The following is a transcript of his response.

Deconversion Stories

The following are deconversion stories of individuals from a variety of backgrounds.

• My own deconversion

---

• A former preacher debates a christian (audio)

---

• Youtube user DasAmericanAtheist

---

• Youtube user LovingDoubt

---

• Youtube user DrixDZanth. Former Evangelical Christian / Former Well-read Creationist.

Reasons for my Deconversion

^{(First distributed among Christian friends in November of 2008.)}

I have recently been asked by several individuals to detail the reasons behind my deconversion from Christianity to my current position of agnosticism. As a preface to this, I’d like to state my general disposition towards Christianity.

I spent over 25 years as a Christian, and for most of those years I was quite happy. I forged many significant relationships, and learned much while within a Christian community. I do not feel, as do some non-believers who have never been on the inside, that Christians are, as a whole, evil people intent on forcing their agenda on others. I do, however, believe that most Christians are uninterested in an honest inquiry into what is true due to vested interests of various emotions. I will detail these emotions later.