Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
General Christian
Religion News

2024-01-12T15:25:22-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Introducing Atheist Arguments to New Eyes: The Research

Last updated on: January 12, 2024 at 3:25 pm By Joel Furches

0 Comments

Atheism: A Relatively New Phenomenon The specter of atheism has always hovered at the edge of Western culture to a degree, since prior to the Middle Ages. Even during ancient Biblical times, when every culture the world over was deeply committed to some religion or another, the Psalmist allows for the fact that some people might put forth the proposal that no God exists when he says, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” (Psalm 14:1) During... Read more

religion and wellbeing

2023-12-09T16:51:18-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When Women Deconvert: The Research

Last updated on: December 9, 2023 at 4:51 pm By Joel Furches

0 Comments

The History of Religious Research While religious movement (people entering religious communities, switching religious communities, or leaving religious communities) has always been present, it tends to be a difficult topic to research given that religious movement has the tendency to be slow, sporadic, and unpredictable. Meaning that a researcher would have to sit about in any given church lobby for years to get enough samples for research. As a result, when studying the topic of religious movement in the past,... Read more

2023-12-06T11:54:56-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Has Belief in God Undergone a Renaissance? Reviewing the Thesis of Justin Brierley

Last updated on: December 6, 2023 at 11:54 am By Joel Furches

0 Comments

The book The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God by Justin Brierley is hot off the presses (relatively speaking), and the premise suggested by the title runs wildly counter to the prevailing view of religious trends in the world. By all available data, religious involvement appears to be on the downswing worldwide rather than increasing. But one does not judge a book by its cover – or in this case, its title. Before attacking Brierley’s case, it is worth the... Read more

Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God

Unbelievable

2023-12-01T11:59:09-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Research behind Religious Trauma, Spiritual Abuse, and Church Hurt

Last updated on: December 1, 2023 at 11:59 am By Joel Furches

0 Comments

A subject I have addressed in previous articles is the concept of “Religious Trauma,” also called “Spiritual Abuse,” or “Church Hurt.” However, in those previous articles, I had not done any investigation into the formal academic literature on the subject. This was in part because I had not yet gotten to the point in my deconversion research that I was ready to tackle a tangential topic*. But it was also in part because there was practically no peer-reviewed research on... Read more

Religious Trauma Syndrome

science

Spiritual Abuse

2023-11-24T21:25:58-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Atheist Police Officer Comes to Christ After Investigation

Last updated on: November 24, 2023 at 9:25 pm By Joel Furches

0 Comments

Jim Wallace likes to brag that, for roughly half a century now, if you called the Torrance Police Department in California, and asked for Wallace, a member of his family would be there to pick up the phone. This is because, before Wallace ever entered the police force, his father had been a career officer, and now that Wallace is retired, his own son has entered the force. Like many police officers, Wallace’s father developed a world-weary cynicism about life... Read more

Psychology

Christianity

epistemic uncertainty

psychology

PTSD

religion and wellbeing

Religious Trauma Syndrome

2023-11-14T15:38:19-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When Teens Deconvert: What the Research Says

Last updated on: November 14, 2023 at 3:38 pm By Joel Furches

0 Comments

The Teenage Exodus It is an established fact that the teenage years are a time when many life changes are liable to occur. Early in conversion research, scholars noted that most religious conversions appeared to happen while the convert was an adolescent, and the same is true with deconversions. The mass exodus happening in churches around the world is largely happening with people in their adolescent years. Surprisingly, however, very little of the early work on deconversion aimed its lens... Read more

Psychology

adolescents

deconstruction

deconversion research

doubt

psychology

teenagers

2023-11-03T09:54:08-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Deconversion Stories: The Camel with the Hammer

Last updated on: November 3, 2023 at 9:54 am By Joel Furches

0 Comments

Dr. Daniel Fincke has his PhD in philosophy from Fordham University and spent 11 years teaching in college classrooms. He wrote his dissertation on ethics. Daniel was born and raised on Long Island in a nominally Catholic home, although his father was personally agnostic. Daniel’s Journey to Belief When Daniel was five, his parents sent his brother – 8 years his senior – to an evangelical church camp. It was at this camp that Daniel’s brother became deeply convicted, got... Read more

2023-10-23T13:57:26-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Does Autism Contribute to Atheism?

Last updated on: October 23, 2023 at 1:57 pm By Joel Furches

0 Comments

In a previous article, I reviewed Paul C. Vitz’s book Faith of the Fatherless which proposes that a contributing factor to atheism is the relationship one has with one’s father or father figure. The thesis being that an absent father or a poor relationship with one’s father increases the likelihood that one will take an atheistic stance on life. However, tucked away in the back of Vitz’s book, almost as an aside, is a novel proposition of another contributing factor... Read more

More Voices

Health, Fitness and Religion

Autism Spectrum Disorder

faith of the fatherless

Paul C. Vitz

2023-09-25T16:10:39-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“Faith of the Fatherless”: Do Fathers Make or Break a Person’s Faith?

Last updated on: September 25, 2023 at 4:10 pm By Joel Furches

0 Comments

Of Fathers and God Author, speaker, and former counselor Debbie W. Wilson writes about an experience she had in her counseling course: “During the course, each of us took an inventory on how we viewed our heavenly Father in a variety of issues. I zipped through the list checking the appropriate columns. “Later, we filled out the same inventory, this time as it related to our earthly fathers. I whizzed down the columns until my pattern arrested me. I flipped... Read more

Uncategorized

atheism

deconversion

faith of the fatherless

Paul C. Vitz

psychology

science

2023-09-17T18:21:21-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Academic Link Between Deconversion and Anger Toward God

Last updated on: September 17, 2023 at 6:21 pm By Joel Furches

0 Comments

The very public conflict around atheism and religion was at its height during the 2010s, with both sides being equally vocal. During that time, it was not uncommon for religious people to claim that atheists were simply angry at God. The common response from atheists was that they were not angry at God so much as they were at religion – a response which makes sense, given that they did not believe in God. It was somewhat surprising, then, when... Read more

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What theme is central to both Isaiah and Jeremiah's prophecies?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Military conquest Genealogy Priestly leadership Judgment and restoration

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category biography Conversion Stories Deconversion Stories Historical Religious Figures Psychology Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2024 November 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 March 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022

TRENDING AT PATHEOS General Christian