Graceful Atheist Podcast

Julia tells her story of deconstructing the Jehovah's Witnesses and the expected life of suburbia. Julia was torn between two grandmothers: an evangelical and a Jehovah's Witness. She became a Jehovah's Witness and was all in. She got married and had kids and supported her husband who was an elder. That is when the boredom set it. She wanted more, she wanted to travel and be a need-gre...

The Consciousness Delusion In this solo episode I discuss Artificial Intelligence. Should we agree with Richard Dawkins that Claude is conscious? Probably not, for several reasons. I talk about how LLMs work, why I don't think they are conscious and how a humanist should respond. Topics: (Semi) Technical description of how Large Language Models work LLMs are trained on the sum total of human h...

Liam is a friend and a colleague of many years. He is a member of the Religious Society of Friends often called Quakers. Liam and I have shared deep conversations before and after my deconversion. I respect the way Liam holds and lives out his beliefs. You might be surprised. The British Liberal Quakerism Liam lives out on a daily basis is very close to my version of Humanism, Secular Grace. He is...

I recently read Antimemetics: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading by Nadia Asparouhova and it blew my mind. Just reading the intro I knew I needed to do an episode on the subject. Almost everything about deconstruction and deconversion is antimememetic. It is a significant idea that resists spreading. Listen to the episode to find out how. All of the following are antimemetic: Doubt Deconstruction Dec...

Mark Anthony Diaz is the author of Reedkeeper's Journey and one of my best friends. Mark and I grew up together. We had the same sarcastic friend group in high school. We did ministry together. Crucially, Mark stuck with me after my deconversion. Mark is a person of deep conviction, and while he's a talented EMT, author, and podcaster, it's his personal journey that truly resonates. Gr...

Welcome back Colin Ryan, author, storyteller, comedian and survivor of Bipolar 2, OCD and ADHD. Colin has written Epic Tiny Victories: A hopeful story about depression anxiety and reframing your life . It is hilarious, honest and poignant. Colin describes in the book growing up Evangelical, purity culture and his deconstruction process. Join us as we catch up on where Colin's deconstruction jo...

Reflections on ten years of deconversion. I re-tell my deconversion story and reflect on what has changed and what has stayed the same. Links Apostate: Stories of Deconversion https://amzn.to/4rj7TA6 Interact For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2026/03/08/10-year-deconversion-anniversary/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Face...

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/ "Sti...

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...

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 doub...

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. A...

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 fait...

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 Int...

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...

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 dec...

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...

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 ther...

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 interac...

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/...

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, retu...

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. &...

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, Christi...

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 who...

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...

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 w...