Deconversion and the Emergent Church

May 29, 2023 By Joel Furches

The Dawn of Deconversion Research and the Emergent Church Despite the comparative lack of research on deconversion as a whole, work on this topic can be traced back as far as 2009 and Adam’s paper titled “Leaving the fold.” Prior to this, research related to deconversion was targeted at defectors from new religious movements rather than Christianity specifically (Streib & Keller, 2004; Cardano & Pannofino, 2018). At the time Adam wrote his paper, the word “deconversion” was not yet in... Read more

If Humans Have a Soul, Should Psychology be Focused on “Soul Care”?

May 22, 2023 By Joel Furches

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Introduction Psychology, in terms of study and practice, began as a focused on a sort of poorly-defined concept of the “mind,” whatever that may be. In fact, many of the early forays into psychology, Frued, Jung, James, and the like, spent their time trying to define what the “mind” even was. Skinner came along and did away with the idea of a mind altogether, and in modern times the “mind” is largely considered an emergent property of the brain. But... Read more

Five Paths to Reconcile Christianity and Psychology

May 15, 2023 By Joel Furches

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In a previous article, I explained the long history of conflict that had existed between psychology and religion. Around the turn of the century, research emerged which suggested that one’s religion may well have mental health benefits for the religious person, and it became common practice in therapy to encourage religious involvement if the person was part of a religious community. This concession to religion appears to have been a temporary affair, as in recent years a great deal of... Read more

What Deconversion Researchers Do and Do not Know

May 8, 2023 By Joel Furches

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A Rise in Atheism In the year 2000, atheism was a social curiosity in America. This is not to say that America was entirely religious, but rather than the anti-religious sentiment which characterizes modern atheism comprised a rather unremarkable portion of the overall population. The event which changed this was the terrorist attacks of September 11th. At this point, atheist popularizers published books and gave lectures using these terrorist activities as an illustration of the idea that religion (in this... Read more

Tales of Deconversion: The Crisis of a Preacher’s Wife

May 1, 2023 By Joel Furches

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Currently, Cassidy McGillicuddy is a Patheos blogger who writes on the topics of video games, tabletop games, psychology, culture …and the evils of religion. Her blog title nicely sums up these topics by combining the language of gaming with a nod to her atheist stances. The blog is titled “Roll to Disbelieve.” Love Birds and a New Denomination Cassidy wasn’t always a godless commentator. She grew up in a devout Catholic home, and in her teenage years, became convinced that... Read more

Tales of Deconversion: The Monk Who Became an Atheist

April 24, 2023 By Joel Furches

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Joseph McCabe is a man who vies for a place as perhaps the most eloquent and prolific writer and speaker to wage a battle against religion – the Catholic Church specifically – in the 19th and 20th century. In his life, which extended from 1867 to 1955, McCabe wrote 250 books – about 15 million words, total – and gave thousands of lectures from venues as diverse as England, Germany, America, and Australia. The Making of a Friar McCabe was... Read more

Objections to Christianity by People who Deconvert: Why Language Matters

April 17, 2023 By Joel Furches

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Seen in this article is a graph I created while engaged in my case study research on deconversion. This study involved gathering autobiographical stories told by people who had once been avowedly Christian, but now identified quite publicly as atheists. The oldest of these was the late Joseph McCabe who died in 1955. At the time during which McCabe lived, finding autobiographical details of deconversion was difficult, and the person would have had to be a very visible public figure... Read more

“You Lost Me,” A Snapshot of Young Millennial Deconversion

April 10, 2023 By Joel Furches

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What Kind of Book is You Lost Me? The book You Lost Me by David Kinnaman was published in 2011 and then again in 2016 with revisions and expansions on the original work. Kinnaman is a researcher for the Barna Group. Barna is a Christian organization and, while they perform legitimate research using time-tested approaches of social science, the fact that their research is motivated by and done for Christian organizations has gotten them significantly less exposure or respect than... Read more

Philosophy and Deconversion Research

April 3, 2023 By Joel Furches

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Readers of this column will be aware that I am a researcher specializing on the topic of religious deconversion. As a researcher I am, understandably, expected to do research. There are four philosophical assumptions one must consider when one sets out to do research. These are as follows: Ontology. Ontology questions the essential nature of what is real and true in the world – which is not to be confused with whether or not we can know or discover the... Read more

The Religious and Atheist Experience in Autism Spectrum Disorder

March 27, 2023 By Joel Furches

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“’Imagine what it’s like. A person smiles at you—you’re confused because you don’t understand a smile. You can’t get your usual breakfast cereal—your whole day is in disarray because you can’t cope with your routine being upset. And someone tells you to pull your socks up. But you know you’re not wearing socks, and it’s very bewildering’ (CitationJenkins, 2007). If the experience of autism is a bit like that for many people, then the problems with bringing together autism and... Read more