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July 2023

July 24, 2023

The Science Behind Religious Conversion

The Nature of Research When William James formed his model of religious conversion in 1902,...

July 17, 2023

Conversion, Deconversion, and Radical Personality Change

"William James (1901) in his famous study, Varieties of Religious Experiences, understood conversion to be a...

July 10, 2023

Atheists Finding God: the Research of Jana Harmon

A Researcher is Born In the year of 2019, the young PhD candidate, Jana Harmon,...

July 03, 2023

Deconversion Stories: Bart Ehrman

Bart Ehrman is arguably the best-known and best-respected Bible scholar of the modern era. He...

June 2023

June 26, 2023

Deconversion and Midlife Crisis

William James and other conversion researchers have long noted that adolescence is a time of...

June 19, 2023

How the Rise of the Internet has Altered the Religious Landscape

"Tinkering" In his 2018 study on internet and religion, researcher Paul McClure coined the word...

June 12, 2023

A Recent String of Ads About “Religious Trauma Syndrome”

The Ads An ad pops up on your social media. It features a woman sitting...

June 05, 2023

A Brief History of Psychology: From Philosophy to Cognition

Social Psychology began within philosophy. It was assumed early in the development of psychology that...

May 2023

May 29, 2023

Deconversion and the Emergent Church

The Dawn of Deconversion Research and the Emergent Church Despite the comparative lack of research...

May 22, 2023

If Humans Have a Soul, Should Psychology be Focused on “Soul Care”?

Introduction Psychology, in terms of study and practice, began as a focused on a sort...

May 15, 2023

Five Paths to Reconcile Christianity and Psychology

In a previous article, I explained the long history of conflict that had existed between...

May 08, 2023

What Deconversion Researchers Do and Do not Know

A Rise in Atheism In the year 2000, atheism was a social curiosity in America....

May 01, 2023

Tales of Deconversion: The Crisis of a Preacher’s Wife

Currently, Cassidy McGillicuddy is a Patheos blogger who writes on the topics of video games,...

April 2023

April 24, 2023

Tales of Deconversion: The Monk Who Became an Atheist

Joseph McCabe is a man who vies for a place as perhaps the most eloquent...

April 17, 2023

Objections to Christianity by People who Deconvert: Why Language Matters

Seen in this article is a graph I created while engaged in my case study...

April 10, 2023

“You Lost Me,” A Snapshot of Young Millennial Deconversion

What Kind of Book is You Lost Me? The book You Lost Me by David...

April 03, 2023

Philosophy and Deconversion Research

Readers of this column will be aware that I am a researcher specializing on the...

March 2023

March 27, 2023

The Religious and Atheist Experience in Autism Spectrum Disorder

“’Imagine what it's like. A person smiles at you—you're confused because you don't understand a...

March 20, 2023

Psychology and Religious Deconversion: What we Know so far

The Beginning of High Profile Deconversion In modern times, the first high-profile Christians to make...

March 13, 2023

Lone Christians: People who Exit the Church but not the Faith

Today, nearly half of America is unchurched. But even though more and more Americans are abandoning...

March 06, 2023

What Happens in the Brain When Beliefs Change?

Since the challenging and changing of beliefs is integral to the study of conversion and...

February 2023

February 27, 2023

Leftward Drift: Why Deconverts Begin at the Religious Right and Migrate to the Atheist Left

In 2009, during the height of the “New Atheism” trend, but a comfortable distance...

February 20, 2023

Rapture Anxiety and Deconversion

A significant portion of my initial investigation into deconversion involved listening to interviews and reading...

February 16, 2023

The Asbury Revival and Religious Intensification Phenomenon

On February 8th, of 2023, a group of students at Asbury University, a private Christian...

February 13, 2023

“Stages of Faith,” What can 50-Year-Old Research Tell Us About Conversion and Deconversion?

Stages of Faith is a 1981 book by psychologist James Fowler wherein he lays out...

February 06, 2023

The son of a Famous Evangelist who Became a Convinced Atheist

As a column that discusses the process of religious conversion and deconversion, this space will...

January 2023

January 30, 2023

Research into Religious Deconversion Flourishes in the Post Christian West

A Brief History of Conversion Research Ever since William James’ landmark study, A Variety of...

January 23, 2023

The Boy Preacher who Became an Adult Atheist Advocate: Anthony Pinn

As a column that discusses the process of religious conversion and deconversion, this space will...

January 16, 2023

What the Book “How Minds Change” Tells us About Deconversion

How Minds Change is a book by David McRaney in which the author, a science...

January 09, 2023

Deconversion and “Cuss-Words”

Thirty or forty years ago, investigating the phenomenon of religious deconversion would have been a...