Mathew Taylor, co-host of Still Unbelievable!, returns to the podcast to discuss why we podcast.Links Matthew on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vteclimey Confessions of a YEC blog: https://confessionsofayec.wordpress.com/ "God takes the good people early” post: https://confessionsofayec.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/god-takes-the-good-people-early/ Reason Press: https://reasonpress.net/ "Still Unbelievable!” the book: https://reasonpress.net/SU1E Podcasts: Still Unbelievable! https://anchor.fm/still-un...
Dec 30, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 200
This week’s guest is Sara. Sara grew up in a Canadian Mennonite community and embraced it wholeheartedly. She was surrounded by evangelical Christianity and she thrived. As a young adult, she married and followed her husband into ministry. While he led, she helped as was expected of her. It didn’t occur to her until years later how little her own leadership skills had to be set aside. Sara’s husband started deconstructing his beliefs before she did, but as he was learning, she was also learning....
Dec 18, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 199
This week’s guest is Beth. Beth grew up in a fundamentalist Christian home that revered James Dobson, Jerry Falwell and all those who created the “Moral Majority.” Her father was a pastor whose sermons centered on the End Times and protecting their families from the “shifting culture,” (read: all the movements happening in the 60’s and 70’s). As a teen, she lived a double life, keeping plenty of secrets from her parents. However, as a young adult, followed all the rules with the expectation that...
Dec 11, 2023•50 min•Ep. 198
Arline interviews this week’s guest, Andrew. Andrew is a self-named atheist “paleo-nerd.” He grew up home-schooled in a fundamentalist church in southern California. His whole schooling was religious and that included Young Earth Creationism. In high school, Andrew struggled with his shy nature and some depressive episodes. The church didn’t seem to have room for people like him. As a young adult, finally making his own decisions and living a life without fundamentalism everywhere, Andrew saw ho...
Dec 04, 2023•55 min•Ep. 197
Arline interviews this week’s guest, Racquelle. Racquelle grew up in Canada in the Seventh Day Adventist church. Conspiracy theories were common in her household. Some of them she bought into. Throughout her life she went through periods of doubt but something kept bringing her back to Church. A sense of obligation and expectation never left her. Eventually, Racquelle deconverted from her faith and deconstructed the conspiracy theories. She now has an interesting perspective on the deconstructio...
Nov 27, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 196
Arline interviews this week's guest, Andy Neal of Andy Films And Hikes fame. He is self described as a "plus size hiking influencer." Andy tells his story of deconstruction, acceptance of his body and his joy in nature. He is an inspiration to all to get outdoors and experience nature. Links Instagram https://www.instagram.com/andyfilmsandhikes/ Link Tree https://linktr.ee/AndyNeal Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist....
Nov 20, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 195
Natalie from New Zealand tells Arlene here story. She grew up Pentecostal participating in church. In her young adulthood she converted to Mormonism. She saw that as woman her role was limited and was finding it difficult to accept the church's perspective on LGBQT issues. Eventually Natalie deconverted. She is thankful for her kids' sake who later came out as queer. Natalie now finds time in nature and the forest life giving. Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the fu...
Nov 13, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 194
Jeff grew up in his words “a very religious household.” He attended a large Southern Baptist church. In college he fell in love with the seriousness of Calvinism after reading John Piper’s Desiring God. He left seminary early to become a minster because he felt time pressure to be “on mission” for God. After three pastors he knew committed suicide in one year, Jeff began to deconstruct. Today he is agnostic and finds therapy and mindfulness helpful in his life. Links Instagram https://www.instag...
Nov 06, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 193
This week’s guest is Megan. Megan grew up in a fundamentalist Catholic home with an irrationally religious mother and an absent father. As a teen, she was invited to an evangelical bible study after school and after some serious “love bombing” by the youth group, she was a part of a community. “You get ‘loved bombed’ when you walk into a new church or into a new youth group, and they make you feel like you are the most welcome you will ever be and that your community is so indeed of you and your...
Oct 30, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 192
This week’s guest is Kris. Kris grew up in a home with much wounding and suffering, an irreligious home that would shape her desire for God as a young adult. She became a christian when she was 22—a “poor, broken young mom.” For years, Christianity worked well for her. She found community, built a family, made friends. Church gave her a place to use her abilities and passions, but there was always a glass ceiling. In 2017, she and a friend went to a “biblical archeology” seminar. For the first t...
Oct 23, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 191
This week’s guest is Jeremy Schumacher. Jeremy’s story begins in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod and it was as culty as it sounds. He started questioning the beliefs when he was ten, but it took twenty more years before he was able to leave. “Two things really kept me in [Christianity] longer than I needed to stay or wanted to stay: fear of hell…and everyone I knew and interacted with was Lutheran, just not having any sense of community outside of the church…” Jeremy is currently a “lic...
Oct 16, 2023•57 min•Ep. 190
This week is a solo episode with David talking about the state of the podcast. Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/10/08/graceful-atheist-solo-october-2023/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Graceful Atheist Podcast Merch! https://www.teepublic.com/user/gracefulatheistpodcast Support the podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Secula...
Oct 09, 2023•15 min•Ep. 189
This week’s guest is Mandi. Mandi grew up in a mixed Jewish and Christian home, attending a Messianic temple. She loved every minute of it as a kid and cherishes her memories. In high school and as a young adult, though, she began to ask questions, and as we’ve seen in religion time and time again, her questions were dismissed. After incredible and full years of life—moving to Israel, returning to Georgia, joining an Orthodox Jewish community, getting married, and having children—she identifies ...
Oct 02, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 188
This week’s guest is Jordon. Jordon comes from a long family line of Mennonites but Jordon was bookish and musical and never quite fit in. He grew up in the church, but with two older brothers already having left the church, by 21 he was also out. He’d never had a television, gone to public school, or really knew anything beyond the small bubble he was in. University changed all of that. “The sense of community I was getting from the friendships I was making outside of these church communities…w...
Sep 25, 2023•58 min•Ep. 187
This week’s guest is Nora. Nora grew up in Argentina, the granddaughter of Italian immigrants, and Argentina still has her heart. When Nora was in middle school, her father believed God wanted him to become a missionary to the US. The family’s move to California was all loss, culture shock, and homesickness for Nora. Between church doctrine on divorce, enduring an abusive marriage, Christian Nationalism, and questions that kept coming, Nora stayed in Christianity as long as she could stand it. S...
Sep 18, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 186
This week’s guest is Tracey. Tracey spent her childhood in a white American Christian home where Focus on the Family reigned and “Obey right away” was the expectation. She was a believer as an adolescent but began asking hard questions in high school. As a young adult, she saw how prideful the leaders were and how easily Christians were pulled in. “That’s a theme through my whole experience of Christianity…Christians are actually attracted to narcissists…People are drawn to or encouraged to seek...
Sep 11, 2023•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 185
This week’s guest is Mary Justice, the heart behind the delightful Instagram account, @maryfairyboberry . Mary is an international adoptee who grew up in an emotionally and verbally abusive Seventh-Day Adventist home. Between home and church, there were rules that dictated her entire life. “It’s just so much fanaticism.” As an adult, she has a family she cares for without the abuse or micro-managing from high-control religion. She’s been through a lot, but she’s choosing to laugh and enjoy her p...
Sep 04, 2023•59 min•Ep. 184
This week’s guest is Amanda. Amanda comes from a rather surprising brand of Christianity she refers to as the “Serpent Seed Pentecostal Cult.” She goes into detail, and it’s quite a ride. Various things happened throughout her adolescence that made her wonder if Christianity was true, but her mother would violently put a quick stop to those doubts. By 17, Amanda left home to live with a friend, but that couldn’t last long. Amanda spent a decade trying out every religion under the sun but never f...
Aug 28, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 183
This week’s guest is MJ, the heart and mind behind the Instagram account, @dissident_daughters MJ grew up in a conservative evangelical home where Focus on the Family reigned and her whole world consisted of family, church friends, and a few Christian homeschooling families. She believed wholeheartedly, feeling all the existential pressure as a child to “save” everyone around her. As a young woman, MJ was surrounded by social workers while in college, and these colleagues were curious. They didn...
Aug 21, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 182
Dr. Darrel Ray is the founder and President of the Board of Directors of Recovering from Religion and the founder and project leader of the Secular Therapy Project. See his full bio here . Dr. Ray grew up in a Christian home but was already skeptical of certain claims at the age of twelve. He stayed in church—singing and teaching—but was relieved to finally leave the church as an adult. He has decades of experience in psychology and has helped countless people who’ve been harmed by religion. “I’...
Aug 07, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 181
CW: sexual abuse; suicidal ideation This week’s guest is Religious Trauma Life Coach, Mary Burkhart. See her full bio here . Mary grew up in the Apostolic Pentecostal Church, and her family’s devotion goes back generations. When she was little, unspeakable things happened to Mary, but their church self-righteously dismissed the situation, forcing her mom and her to move. They found different churches; Mary hoped these would be different. Between working behind the scenes in another church and se...
Jul 31, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 180
You’re going to want to grab a cozy drink and pull up your favorite note-taking app because this episode is jam-packed! Former guest, Daniel shared his deconversion story here, and now he returns with a lesson on the psychology of modern—and often, predatory—apologetics. He knows his stuff, so prepare to learn a few things. “The target audience of apologetics is actually believers, and the purpose of apologetics is to reduce cognitive dissonance.” Links Daniel’s first episode https://gracefulath...
Jul 17, 2023•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 179
This week’s guest is artist Stephanie Stalvey. You can see her full bio here. She is the artist behind Instagram’s @stephanie.stalvey.artist . Stephanie was a “90’s church kid” attending various evangelical churches when she was young. She took her beliefs seriously, and it wasn’t until her twenties that a sudden loss forced her to question whether life was as simple as she’d been taught. When Stephanie became a mother, she truly left fundamentalist religion. “I needed to let God expand into wha...
Jul 10, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 178
This week’s guest is Benoit Kim. He is a “Veteran, Penn-educated Policymaker turned Psychotherapist, & Podcaster at Discover More .” Benoit is a Christian, creating space for deep and meaningful conversations and stories. The Discover More podcast is a show for independent thinkers with an emphasis on mental health. Benoit is currently a forensic clinician at Project 180. Links Discover More Podcast https://www.discovermorepodcast.com/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@DiscoverMorePodcast Lin...
Jul 03, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 177
Content Warning : Sexual abuse, spiritual abuse, severe mental health disorders Kyler’s story is one of “beauty from ashes”. He lives with dissociative identity disorder, a category of CPTSD. Kyler is one distinct personality in the “system”. The adults in his life abused him as a child—would not keep him safe—and so his brain stepped in and made a way to survive. Kyler watched the church fail him and his family over and over, refusing to help or even acknowledge the abuse and trauma. “This pers...
Jun 26, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 176
This week’s guest is Christian Lomsdalen. Christian is the current president of the Norwegian Humanist Association and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Bergen studying the didactics (science) of religion. Christian grew up in an ordinary Christian Norwegian family as “Christmas Christians”. He went to church for Christmas and other holidays, and that was about it. “I identified as a Christian…a quiet liberal Christian, probably. I guess a lot of the evangelicals in the United States probab...
Jun 19, 2023•53 min•Ep. 175
This week’s guest is Benjamin Faye, also known as @heytherebenji .Benji was adopted when he was young and during middle school, his adoptive parents suddenly “wanted a spiritual life” and started going to church. His life as an adoptee was difficult. Benji questioned whether he belonged in the family and things only got worse as he got older. His adoptive parent became abusive and in his early twenties, he had to leave. He hoped the church could be the place he could question and process his gri...
Jun 12, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 174
This week’s guest is Ben Reed. Ben grew up in the Church of Christ with a cappella music, no clapping, no raised hands, no prophecies, no miracles, but also no demons. “Compared to the more charismatic denominations, the Church of Christ is pretty boring…I think that’s kind of why I stayed so long because it wasn’t that exhausting.” Ben’s years in the church were good—no cognitive dissonance or serious trauma—until 2020. “It wasn’t until Covid hit that I really started waking up, and I saw how C...
Jun 05, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 173
This week’s guest is Shifra Lowen. Shifra grew up in a small, well-controlled Hasidic community in Canada. As a girl, Shifra wanted to do everything according to the rules of their village. At the same, she desperately wanted forbidden things, like a kitten or a pet bird. At 17, her marriage was arranged to someone she knew and even liked, and Shifra was on Cloud 9 for a while, though suspicious of her own happiness. Then her husband did something unthinkable. “…Imagine my shock and fear when I ...
May 29, 2023•1 hr•Ep. 172
This week’s guest is comedian and writer, Holly Laurent. See her full bio and work here . Holly tells a bit of her story, growing up in a fundamentalist evangelical household. From the fear of demons to eternal conscious torment, Holly is still dismantling the indoctrination. In comedy, she’s found a way to express her “voice that always got [her] in trouble” as well as an accepting community, something she struggled to find in the church. Her podcast Mega has a new five-part mini-series parodyi...
May 22, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 171
