Deconversion Stories

This page is for people to share their stories, so that others can come along and read it and say, “Good, I’m not the only one”.

Neece’s Quest for Knowledge Turns to Atheism

My parents weren’t religious when I was young, but my older sister got sucked into the local baptist church, so of course she dragged me along. It was the typical fire and brimstone kinda preaching. In the summer, we would go visit my grandparents, and my grandmother would take us to the christian scientist church. They didn’t conflict too much for my young brain, so it wasn’t that bad. I was a good little christian girl, and got baptized as soon as I could with the god fearing baptists.

When I was about 12, my parents suddenly got religious in the church of christ. More fear of god preaching filled my head, including bible study once a week with the minister. I got baptized two more times in two different churches, for good measure, and went to church faithfully. I was terrified of burning in hell. It didn’t help that my parents were crazy… good christians on Sunday morning, screaming and abusive the rest of the week. Of course they both blamed me for their abusiveness, so I felt damned to hell for being so wicked, even though I was exceedingly good most of the time. Read more >>

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Johnny Becomes an Atheist

I was raised Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) early in my childhood. My mother’s side of the family is fairly traditional SDA; my mother was raised in it, and my father converted for her. I went to the SDA church school for first through third grade. Even at that age I stirred up trouble: my teacher told us the moon landing was faked because man can not reach space where heaven and god reside; and that dinosaurs were fake, they were just a pile of cow bones that scientists put together wrong. When I argued with her I was sent to the principal’s office; when he backed her I pretty much stopped believing everything they told me. That’s were my skepticism started.

During that time I was also taught that all other religions were wrong, and those practicing other religions were going to hell; something at the time I found utterly ridiculous, and something I’ve since discovered to be common theory among many religions. I overheard church leaders describe the evils that public school taught, pushing fear upon parents so that they would pay to send their children to the private Adventist school. I saw prejudice against people for not dressing nice enough when coming to church and others extensively questioned about their absence from church the week prior. Read more >>

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GMNightmare’s Rise of the Gnostic Atheist

In my beginning, I was born to both a new mother and new father. My birth was a rather large event to my extended family, for I was the very first great grandchild. As my mother’s family is very close, of course many made an appearance. Near birth, I was blessed and baptized by my great grandfather under Christianity.

Under such pretenses I assume many would suspect that I was raised under a very religious setting. This was luckily not the case. It is worth mentioning that my mother’s ancestors stem from a long line of clergy, and they are all fairly religious… And while my mother is also mildly religious, my family couldn’t seem to find a church that we fit into. Read more >>

Related posts

• Neece (1)
• Johnny (1)
• Why I’m An Atheist, Not An Agnostic (19)
• The Christian Questionnaire (6)
• Rise of the Gnostic Atheist: A Deconversion Story (16)