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Rieux

Amen as usual, Greta.

I'm one of the 43, and I'm pretty sure you put me in the "Talking to religious leaders and teachers" category--for good reason. But actually I'd say my progress from believer to atheist involved experiences in all four categories you mention.

I'd bet that's true of a lot of us--whatever category our Instant of Conversion belongs in, some or all of the other ones (reading holy books, talking to the religious, talking to skeptics, and a lot of thinking) were part of the process as well. None of which challenges your points here.


With regard to Julia Sweeney and "Letting Go of God," I can't recommend that piece enthusiastically enough. Sweeney manages to balance a real, hard-headed atheist critique with a manner that comes off as enormously sympathetic. If I could only choose a single book/TV show/movie/etc. to give to a Christian in the hopes of deconverting him/her (a silly goal, of course), I'd pick "Letting Go of God." For my money, it has a better shot than anything by Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, or whomever else.

You can find Sweeney's website here, and you can purchase CD copies of "LGoG" here.

Sweeney has also turned "LGoG" into a film; I guess distributors weren't as enthused about it as we'd like, so it's going direct to DVD. According to her website, that DVD is going to be available in mid-November. I'd like to suggest that the atheist blogosphere promote the film when it comes out. Who's with me?

Ebonmuse

I'm surprised by these results too. I know people do deconvert after being persuaded by rational argument, but I wouldn't have expected it to be as common an occurrence as this. From what I've seen, I would have thought the most common causes of deconversion would be people reading their Bibles for themselves, and people meeting atheists and seeing that we don't fit the stereotypes about us that are tossed around.

But it's good to know that arguments do have an effect! I know for myself it often feels like shouting into the wind, but maybe they change people's minds more frequently than we realize. That's a very heartening discovery, if it's true.

Monado

Interesting. I went from a relatively fervent teen to a watered-down Christian by hearing about the hypocrisy of (some) church leaders and their opposition to women in equality.

At that point I still thought there was something to it, like a happy kid in a barn saying, "With all this horse-shit, there must be a pony in here somewhere!"

Then I finally heard a mainstream-media radio broadcast during which one of the speakers admitted that there simply isn't any unbiased historical evidence for the existence of Jesus. And suddenly it all made sense--as a mass folly reinforced by convention, inertia, childhood indoctrination, and the twisted logic of "Heads he wins, tails you lose!" No matter what happened, it was God's will and therefore proof of God. The emperor really had no clothes!

Ali

Sweeney has also turned "LGoG" into a film; I guess distributors weren't as enthused about it as we'd like, so it's going direct to DVD. According to her website, that DVD is going to be available in mid-November. I'd like to suggest that the atheist blogosphere promote the film when it comes out. Who's with me?

evden eve nakliyat

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