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January 2024

January 12, 2024

Introducing Atheist Arguments to New Eyes: The Research

Atheism: A Relatively New Phenomenon The specter of atheism has always hovered at the edge...

October 2023

October 23, 2023

Does Autism Contribute to Atheism?

In a previous article, I reviewed Paul C. Vitz’s book Faith of the Fatherless which...

October 09, 2023

The Academic Link Between Deconversion and Anger Toward God

The very public conflict around atheism and religion was at its height during the 2010s,...

October 02, 2023

Reality Check: When Deconverts Feel the Sting of Discrimination

In 2020, the American Atheist Society [AAS] released the results of an online survey they...

September 2023

September 11, 2023

Vander Elst: The British Atheist Who Converted Because of the Problem of Evil

Philip Vander Elst is a freelance writer and lecturer who works primarily in the fields...

August 2023

August 21, 2023

Deconversion Stories: A Charismatic Preacher Becomes an Atheist Outreacher

Dan Barker is an itinerate and outspoken atheist, whose life is so entangled with his...

August 14, 2023

When Atheists Convert: The Renaissance Scholar Becomes a Christian Scholar

John Warwick Montgomery is a renaissance scholar and a true renaissance man; having made a...

July 2023

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 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...

May 2023

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 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...

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 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 09, 2023

Deconversion and “Cuss-Words”

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

December 2022

December 19, 2022

Magnets, the Human Brain, and God

The Brain Damage You have no doubt heard it said that we still have much...

December 12, 2022

Deconversion and “Selective Perception”

In 2019, researchers Perez and Vallieres conducted an in-depth study on the subject of deconversion....

December 05, 2022

Deconversion and “Religious Trauma Syndrome”

WHAT IS RELIGIOUS TRAUMA SYNDROME? There is a phenomenon known as "Religious Trauma Syndrome" (RTS)...

December 02, 2022

Study: Could Religious People Be More Complex Thinkers Than Irreligious People

Testing Thought Complexity It's a fairly common trope: religious people are knuckle-dragging uneducated troglodytes more...

November 2022

November 28, 2022

“A Manual for Making Atheists”: an Imperfect Book but an Effective Movement

Peter Boghossian is a philosopher and college professor who is responsible for inventing the practice...

November 21, 2022

Ridicule and Deconversion

In his March 24th talk at the 2012 Reason Rally, popular atheist speaker Richard Dawkins...

November 14, 2022

Deconversion and the Term “Deconstruction”

I began looking onto deconversion as a journalist. I wanted to look at stories of...

November 07, 2022

Applying Behavior Analysis to Deconversion

Sometimes we want to know why people do the things they do. In my field...

October 2022

October 31, 2022

Going off to College and Losing Faith

It has almost become a trope among Christians that sending your kids off to college...