Imagine a genie walks (floats? sidles?) up to you and says, “See that guy over there? Yeah, the 80-year-old that looks like he’s having a great time. If you say yes, I’ll make him sad and lonely, riddled with guilt, obsessing over the past. So, shall we?” How would you react? Assuming you react with ..read more

“I was a ‘Jerk for Jesus,’ because I thought that’s what I was supposed to be doing ..read more

Forget everything else. Keep hold of this alone and remember it: Each of us lives only now, this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see. Meditations 3.10 (Hays) One of the hardest things about deconverting is coming to terms with the fact that there’s so much time already spent ..read more

“What I find, the more I do this, is that people just need someone to listen and not judge and not tell them they’re wrong.” --Rachel Hunt ..read more

Say you’ve realized you no longer believe, gone through some of the typical stages of deconversion, and are ready to move on with your life, when, Whammo! You’re blindsided by some old feeling from your previous life. “Why do I still fear Hell?” “Why am I still afraid of being Left Behind?” “Why do I ..read more

This week’s guests are Brian and Troy of the podcast, I was a Teenage Fundamentalist. They interviewed David at the end of 2022, and now it’s our turn to hear from them. Brian and Troy “used to be loyal Christians megachurch leaders. They’re not anymore.” Their parallel stories are fascinating, as we are given a glimpse ..read more

The edge—the brink, the threshold, the end. The edge is where you may, with one false step, plummet to your death. The edge is where uncertainty lies, and that’s terrifying.  When we get to the edge of nearly anything, our limbic system kicks in and screams, “You’re about to die. Stop! Turn back!” We want ..read more

This week’s guest is Evan Clark. Evan is the Executive Director of Atheists United ..read more

You are probably more confident than you think. I recently heard a friend, a fellow deconvert, talking about how she’s not very confident, and my jaw fell open just a little… she always seemed confident to me. Pretty sure she wasn’t saying, “I’m never confident in any area of my life,” but still: Why did ..read more

Arline guest hosts to ask David anything. David tells his deconversion story. He talks about the beginning of the Deconversion Anonymous FB group. David goes deep on what Secular Grace is and what it means to him. Recommendations Blog Posts Why I am a Humanisthttps://gracefulatheist.com/2017/11/18/why-i-am-a-humanist/ Previous podcast episodes Jennifer Michael Hechthttps://gracefulatheist.com/2019/05/16/jennifer-michael-hecht-doubt-a-history/ Sasha Saganhttps://gracefulatheist.com/2020/02/06/sasha-sagan-for-small-creatures-such-as-we/ Robert Peopleshttps://gracefulatheist.com/2022/04/10/robert ..read more