Sent in by Candace Hi everyone. I have not used my real name for privacy reasons. I'm posting here not so much a testimonial of "deconversion" as an explanation of my current situation. Basically, I started going to church a couple of months ago (I was always aware of Christianity , but had always viewed it with suspicion). Its ideas and concepts always seemed absurd to me (like the resurrection, vicarious atonement , etc), but the more I went the more indoctrinated I became. I was at a tough place in my life and I needed some support from other people and Christianity really helped me with that. Later, I came across your website, did some research on my own (looked at all those "evilbible.com" type websites), realised the Bible was full of absurdity and logical inconsistencies, as well as historical inaccuracies, and quickly deconverted. Thing is, I didn't stop going to church, because couldn't find anything to fill the emotional void. I was an atheist

Sent in by Pretzel I was raised by a mildly Christian mother and an agnostic father. My dad never talked about religion at all. My mom, on the other hand, told me when I was a kid about Heaven, Hell, God, Jesus, etc. But we didn't go to church or anything. I only went to Sunday School during the summer of one year, I think, maybe between second and third grade? I forget. It was rather uneventful. I remember my mom once asking me if I wanted to join something called God Squad. I remember thinking that name sounded cool, and being envious of it. Nowadays, I think "God Squad" just sounds corny, but when you're a kid, anything that sounds "important" and "grown up" sounds cool. Anyway, I didn't think about God too much when I was a kid, though I did believe in heaven or hell, but that was it. When I was 11, though, everything changed at once. You know how people's brains start to work differently when they hit puberty? I don't just mean the

Sent in by Christopher Hello all. I've been trolling this site for a few months now, and I'd like to share my story. Unlike many of you, I wasn't born into a conservative Christian household. When I was 7, I asked my mom if there was a god, and so we started going to church. When I got into my teens I had a fundie Bible school teacher who absolutely believed that the Bible is the unerring Word of God. I remember one time when another kid a few years older than me was in the class and brought up some very valid scientific points (he was extremely smart and knew his stuff). Our teacher simply refused to concede that he was even in the right frame of thinking. The teacher simply used the "Because the Bible says so…" argument. I think this was the beginning of my doubts because everything Nathan said made sense. I was never into the whole church thing because I always thought it was boring and repetitive, but I still believed. I even went to those brainwashing summer

Sent in by George My story is as messy as life itself. I'm in the early processes of going public with my deconversion, but it also feels liberating to finally admit the truth out loud, and in the open. I became a Christian in high school through a youth ministry called Young Life. I went to a week long camp where the gospel was packaged and delivered with great polish and skillful delivery, which was designed for maximum emotional impact. Many girls in the audience at night were in tears as they listened to the account of Jesus. We were all encouraged the final night to go off by ourselves in the dark and commit our lives to Christ. I remember that time vaguely thinking to myself that god really wasn't there, but I think I prayed to him anyway, just in case. It wasn't a fervent prayer however, because I wasn't entirely sure I WANTED him to exist. Still, my friends were doing it, and they seemed cool and nice, so I'd do it to. I came back from camp somehow

Sent in by Nathan I stumbled upon this site and I would like to briefly share my story. I grew up in an ultra-conservative fundamentalist household. Bottom line: Christianity was my life! I attended a Christian middle school and high school. The brand of Christianity I was taught was “hell fire and brimstone”. I believed every word, never questioning. I attended door to door witnessing, and I helped with the church bus route. I personally led several people “to the lord”. Following high school, I attended “ Clearwater Christian College ” (similar in beliefs to Bob Jones University ). Here, I began to have my first suspicions about Christianity. Essentially this school was like a cult. Students were highly restricted to campus, and every move was monitored. All students had to sign a statement promising to follow all the rules in the handbook. This hand book was extensive with petty rules such as “no mix swimming”, “no secular music”, “no movies”, etc. Now, there were consta

By Jeff Mark My name is Jeffrey Mark, and I'm the author of Christian No More , a book that details my deconversion. Here's the short version of my story. I recently turned 40, and until around the age of 30, I was a devout Christian. Although I grew up in a family that was far from fundamentalist, I still went to church every week, and slowly the whole theology of Heaven and Hell was pushed into my brain. Throughout my childhood I lived in constant fear that I would do something wrong, and that I had to beg for forgiveness. Every single movement I made was with God in mind, and wondering how God would feel about it. My friends generally misbehaved a lot more than I did, but it was not my place to judge them. And to me, that meant it would be wrong for me to say that what they were doing was wrong. One friend would pick on other kids and beat them up. Who was I to say that was wrong? Passing judgment was wrong. Although I never beat up any kids, I was occasionally mean and snot

Sent in by Sam OMG! And greetings to this fabulously intelligent, reason-minded, compassionate group of people. I am so glad I found this place and I want to share my story with "the fold" ;-) I am 46. My Deconversion began many years ago in my late 20s but I am still suffering the deeply ingrained effects of the brainwashing that was taking place for my entire childhood and teen years. I am fortunate to have my brother to have gone through the Deconversion with and that has been very helpful. Now we mostly laugh at Christianity, how stupid and nonsensical it is, but I still have a lot of anger at the religion that ingrained in me that I am "bad" and "sinful to the core." What kind of f'd-up belief system teaches that to children?? I spent my entire childhood trembling in fear of my supposedly loving Creator (the one that was jealous and vengeful); I spent my entire childhood ashamed of my body because I am a woman, and Eve, The Original Woman, the mos

Sent in by Kyle Hello all, I am writing right now just off the top of my head to tell the story of my deconversion. I know if I try to plan it all out and make it all pretty I'll never get it done. I'm finally writing this because I've just told my mother how I now really believe. She actually took better than I thought. No screaming or anything. But shes convinced I'll come back someday. ( Um, no thanks ). After getting "saved" at 16 I stayed a fundie baptist until just last November shortly after my 22nd b'day. My faith died quickly. Thanks to a book I read called "How to think about weird things" which is a critical thinking book. The book never even mentioned religion, it was more into UFOs and ghosts and stuff like that. But I applied its critiques to the claims of Christianity and found they were so similar to other claims of the paranormal and supernatural. None of them can survive a barrage from the guns of reason. I'd