Just a quick note: Seth Andrews, who hosts “The Thinking Atheist,” one of the best and most popular podcasts for the godless, wrote a book about his deconversion from evangelical Christianity to atheism. I met Seth at the “Imagine No Religion” meeting in Kamloops; he was a great guy and gave a fascinating talk about how the tropes of secular, popular culture are appropriated by Christians to create a self-contained parallel world for their youth. After years as a Christian broadcaster and d.j., Seth’s faith slowly waned, largely because he read the books of the New Atheists.
I’ve just become aware that Andrews’s Deconverted: A Journey from Religion to Reason was published in December of 2012. It wasn’t on my radar screen for some reason, but a reader called my attention to geologist and science writer Don Prothero’s positive review of the book in the latest issue of the online Skeptic. Here are two excerpts from Prothero’s review, which is called “The Thinking Atheist Confesses.”
The latter part of the book is full of his shrewd observations on religion and atheism. Among the gems are his list of the different categories of believers he’s come to know (the Feeler, the Theologian, the Folklorist, and the Foot Soldier), and his answers to the common questions he gets from the many believers who cannot accept his atheism. As someone who grew up in a slightly different Protestant tradition (Presbyterianism) and grew out of his family’s faith also, I can relate to many of Andrews’ experiences—as can most people who were raised in strictly religious families and have found their way out of their religious shackles.
. . . Andrews’ book is a short but very enjoyable read. It is especially of interest to anyone who has made a similar journey from faith to non-belief, or wishes to understand how this process works.
And the Amazon reviews, and ratings, are pretty impressive:
I’ll definitely be reading this.
I liked Seth’s book because it gave me an understanding of where the religious are coming from as I tend not to run into many of them and have always been godless.
I liked Seth’s book.
Another you may enjoy is What Do You Do With a Chocolate Jesus?: An Irreverent History of Christianity. It’s a fun read, and the audible.com audio book is even better for the snarky read. It’s good history, in full snark.
You know the unfair bit? Not having a deconversion story. No one would be interested in a book about how people in my family were in medicine/science so I never took the religion thing seriously 🙂
“A fascinating book on his journey from not being religious, to still not being religious”
Pink, I would sure love to read your book. It would be full of your usually very funny stories.
And did you stop writing. I don’t see anything on my reader?
When I meet new family members, they are almost always religious. I think, yep, didn’t get your genetics. 🙂
I devoured his book, and I’ve read a few very good deconversion stories in print. The part I enjoyed was his insight into CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) as a part of evangelical and mainstream Christian culture. If you enjoyed a talk by him about Christian appropriation of pop culture for their own parallel world, you’ll enjoy his take and experiences from within that culture.
I don’t go out of my way telling people I’m an atheist unless it comes up naturally in conversation. Of course it doesn’t bother me at all anymore to tell people, but it is always interesting to get blank stares and looks like I’m some sort of Martian, let’s change the subject quickly please, which is a very common reaction. The book sounds interesting, I’m always interested in learning new creative ways to interact with our still predominantly religious culture that haven’t crossed my mind.
My dad was talking to an acquaintance & swearing an oath came up. My dad wondered what non Christian believers and atheists swore on. The guy responded that all atheists should be in jail (something I hadn’t heard in Canada) & that is when my dad said he was an atheist and the acquaintance was dumbfoundedly silent.
“The guy responded that all atheists should be in jail”
For what crime? Thinking too much?
Yeah, I found the comment disturbing as I don’t hear that talk amongst Canadians too often. I suspect they are watching too much FOX news.
We desire our conversion/de-conversion processes be sudden snaps; no, such can proceed over many years;
keyboard collapsing; do i blame god or non-successful technology.
We need to show greater patience for those growing out of upbringing.
all i can say until i have new keyboard.
(Could be simple as that.)