In this blog’s first year, I spent a few months outlining all the different elements that went into my deconversion. I haven’t formally talked much about it since. Now, here, I want to put my deconversion ex-timony into one post. Here’s how–and more importantly why–I deconverted from Christianity, and why I won’t ever go back to it or any other religion.
Ex-Christians have a lot of shorthand ways of talking about how it feels to be deconverted. Often that shorthand involves scenes from movies like The Matrix. But there’s one I’d say gives that classic example a run for the money, and it’s been on my mind lately. Today I want to introduce you to the very odd duck that is the 1974 animated Jack and the Beanstalk–and why it reminds me so much of my own time in Christianity.
As usual, Christians have totally gotten the whole matter wrong about these stories–and they’ve revealed a few very unpleasant aspects of their own tribe in the doing. So here, at last, is the real skinny: here’s what an ex-timony actually is, who tells them and why, and how they differ from Christians’ testimonies.
For some stuff, there’s no substitute for doing something the long way for a result worth having. Here’s a look at shortcuts–why they’re so seductive, what they can’t accomplish, and why some people go overboard with seeking them.
We’re going to look at Angelo Stagnaro, who wrote a post for a big Catholic site about how his god totally created the universe. It’s called A Universe Made Just For Us, and I thought y’all would enjoy it today because oh, I know how much we love us some quantum-woo apologetics!
These commercials are like leading indicators for where Americans are as a culture; they are a statement about what is important to us right now. Today Lord Snow plays couch potato to marvel at one of my favorites: an ad that brings back to life one of the most important 80s movies I ever saw.
This time the guy digging frantically for an even lower spot in my estimation of Christians is Gus Eli Reinhardt, who wrote an absolutely shocking post trying to piggyback on the #MeToo movement by comparing a standard Reformed doctrine to a violent rape. Worse, he’s depicting this spiritual violation as a good thing. Here’s why Christians keep doing this, and why it backfired this time.
This section is a stunning demonstration of that strategy–as well as a disheartening look at the outdated and misapplied information that informs this perennial Christian culture war.
Pseudoscience has been a serious part of Christianity ever since Christianity was, well, Christianity. And it wasn’t until recently that Christians’ rock pile of alternative facts got so unwieldy that it simply collapsed in on top of them. Today we’ll have an overview of pseudoscience–what it is and why it’s so important–because we’re about to head into that CPC manual again and it’s going to be relevant!
Pseudoscience has been a serious part of Christianity ever since Christianity was, well, Christianity. And it wasn’t until recently that Christians’ rock pile of alternative facts got so unwieldy that it simply collapsed in on top of them. Today we’ll have an overview of pseudoscience–what it is and why it’s so important–because we’re about to head into that CPC manual again and it’s going to be relevant!