Whatever we’re doing now to ensure church-state separation clearly isn’t working as the Founding Fathers intended. The problem is that even former true believers still have religion on the brain—literally—as do continuing true believers. I’ll explain later. The upshot is that until we change the U.S. Constitution to explicitly, categorically separating all religious intrusion and […]
Leaving Religion
Exploring the sometimes painful, sometimes exhilarating process of leaving religion.
Posted inBooks, Leaving Religion
Unholy Catholic Ireland: Despite secular shift, many cling to Catholicism
For much of the past century, Ireland was practically synonymous with the Catholic Church. The Church was arguably the most powerful institution for generations of Irish people. But all that began to change in recent years and it’s happened faster than anyone could have anticipated. “Holy Catholic Ireland” is quickly turning unholy. Ireland is now […]
Posted inAnalysis, Leaving Religion, Nonreligious News
Southern Baptist leader shocked by Americans’ ‘pride’ in not being Christian
The Pew Research Center recently projected that, if current trends continue, Christians will be in the minority within 50 years (and probably sooner). By 2070, they said, “Nones” may represent 48% of the population. That’s horrible news for Christian nationalists, who have to reckon with all this non-religious pride, which means it’s great news for […]
Posted inLeaving Religion, Nonreligious News, Religion
The evolution of religion and the rise of the nones
The decline of Christianity in the United States does not mean that “religion” is dead or dying. News of the death of religion may excite humanists, but it is unlikely to go extinct. Religion is an adaptable social phenomenon. Religious beliefs and behaviors have always evolved. In a free country, this evolution will continue. Secularism […]
Posted inAnalysis, Leaving Religion
Collapse: Inside Ireland’s stunning rebuke of Catholicism
The speed and conviction of Ireland’s repudiation of the Catholic Church is without precedent in the world—and for good reason.
Posted inLeaving Religion
Evangelical worlds collide
Religious apologists treat the decline of Christianity as a natural phenomenon, like weather. They don’t want to admit that their own choices are the cause.
Posted inCulture, General, Leaving Religion
Why I wore a cross necklace as an atheist
By the time I was ten years old, all four of my grandparents had passed, and as the last of six kids, I hadn’t expected any kind of inheritance. What they did leave me were memories and vague ones at that. So I was surprised when on my sixteenth birthday, my mother pulled out a […]
Posted inFilm/TV, Leaving Religion
‘Scientology, The Aftermath’: A reminder that ‘religious freedom’ can be dangerous
After I recently finished watching the Emmy-winning 2016-2019 A&E docuseries, “Leah Remini: Scientology and The Aftermath,” I was further convinced of how supremely dangerous the concept of “religious freedom” can be as practiced in America, as I stressed in my 2018 book, Holy Smoke: How Christianity Smothered the True American Dream. And expensive. Remini’s series […]
Posted inLeaving Religion, Religious News
These stories of the ‘worst church service ever attended’ are horrifying
Sometimes, if you want to hear an interesting story, all you need is the right prompt. And this one on Twitter, asking people to share the worst church service they ever attended, was enough to inspire them to share all kinds of troubling anecdotes. There are so many responses, it’s hard to share them all, […]
Posted inLeaving Religion
The pro-life clinic manual that deconverted me from Christianity
I started reading this CPC manual as a firm, fervent Christian. I ended it weeping, devastated, and windmilling my arms over the ledge of apostasy.