Graceful Atheist Podcast

This week's show is a  Deconversion Anonymous  episode. My guest this week is Ray Gilford. Ray grew up more of a cultural Christian. His family believed but did not push him. In college, without community and looking for friendship predatory evangelism took advantage of him. Ray worked hard at being a Christian but wanted something deeper. He learned Hebrew and Greek in an effort to find "...

My guest this week is Dr. Anthony Pinn. Dr. Pinn is the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities, the Professor of Religious Studies. the Founding Director of the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning Rice University, and the Director of Research of the Institute for Humanist Studies. Dr. Pinn has written a number of books on the intersection of humanism and race. In this episo...

My guest this week is Joel Furches. Joel is a psychologist researching topics of religion. He has a BA in psychology an MA in education, and he is working on his PhD in Behavioral Analysis. He he has focused on conversions and deconversions and has written a well researched article entitled: Why Do Christians Become Atheists? A Case Study . Joel and I discuss his research and walk through his mode...

My guest this week is Leighann Lord, comedian, author and podcast host. She has traveled the world doing comedy and has been on VH1, Comedy Central and HBO. She has co-hosted on Neil Degrasse Tyson's Start Talk Radio and on CFI's podcast, Point of Inquiry. She hosts her own podcast, People With Parents . She has written two books: Dict Jokes and Real Women Do It Standing Up . Leighann went...

My guest this week is Bart Campolo. Bart is the host of the Humanize Me Podcast. He is the author of "Why I Left, Why I Stayed." Along with his famous Evangelical father, Tony Campolo, Bart is the subject of John Wright's documentary: Leaving my Father's Faith. If that is not enough, Bart is also the Humanist Chaplain at the University of Cincinnati. Bart and I discuss graceful way...

My guest this week is Bryce Harrington. Bryce and I have been colleagues off and on at a couple of different companies over the years. But most importantly he and I had a seminal discussion back in 2012 while killing time in an airport. At the time I was a dedicated Evangelical Christian and Bryce has been a life long atheist. Even though I had an ulterior motive at the time Bryce was kind, gracio...

My guest this week is John Marriott. We are talking about deconversion from the Christian perspective. John is the Director of Global Learning and teaches in the department of Philosophy of Religion and Ethics at Biola University. John did his PhD dissertation focused on deconversion from Christianity to atheism. He has written a book on deconversion called "A Recipe For Disaster," which i...

My guest this week is Richard Swan. Richard grew up Catholic, became an Anglican and then moved on to Pentecostalism. He was a worship leader and an active member of the Christian music scene including touring as Graham Kendrick 's choir director. He began to notice that regardless of his person life the people responded in worship under his leadership. This began his questioning which eventua...

This week's guest is Amy Logan. Amy is the podcast host of Exmormonology . She is a certified life coach who helps people through exiting Mormonism, deconstructing and thriving in a post-faith life. Amy was the perfect Mormon girl. She did everything right. She attended BYU. She was married in the Temple. When she discovered a book covering the full history of Mormonism she began to have doubt...

My guest this week is Dr. Clint Heacock. Clint is the host of the Mindshift Podcast that focuses on reconstruction after deconstruction. Clint grew up in the Church of Christ with parents who followed the Bill Gothard method of child rearing. Clint now describes this as cultic practices. What I need to do is discover the authentic Christianity … and then I wasn't able to do it. After pursuing...

My guest this week is David Johnson, the co-host and creator of the Skeptics and Seekers podcast and blog. David is a former Church of Christ member and a pastor's kid. He was baptized at 7, leading the church in song at 7, preaching at 12, the youth leader at 15 and assistant minister at 21. His deconversion process began as he examined the Church of Christ's doctrine against musical acco...

This week's show is a  Deconversion Anonymous  episode. My guest this week is Sarah. Sarah is a co-author of the book "Still Unbelievable!" She is a regular poster on the Unbelievable? discussion boards. Sarah has a unique blend of down to earth perspective and an intellectual rigor. Sarah grew up a Christian. She was a part of the Shepherding Movement which is now considered a cult. S...

My guest this week is Sam, the blogger behind When Belief Dies . Sam is also starting an upcoming podcast of the same name. Which will include his friend Dave who remains a believer with questions. They will tackle the difficult questions about Christianity with mutual respect and curiosity. Sam was a very dedicated to Christ and to his church. He was in the process of becoming an elder when depre...

This week's show is a  Deconversion (not so) Anonymous  episode. My guest this week is Stephen Barry. Stephen was a Seventh Day Adventist who deconverted while attending college studying theology. When he was exposed to other ideas and other people even within his own faith tradition, this small amount of scrutiny led to deconversion. After losing the community of the black church, Stephen has...

My guest this week is Jessica Hagy. Jessica is the artistic and comedic genius behind the blog, Indexed. She has recently written a book titled, The Humanist Devotional . Jessica is an artist, an author, a comedian, and a marketing and social media guru. Get as humble as you can. Jessica grew up secular and calls herself a humanist. It is not that she rejected the bible, but rather that there was...

My guest this week is Sasha Sagan. Sasha has written a beautiful book called For Small Creatures Such As We: Rituals For Finding Meaning In Our Unlikely World . The book title comes from a quote in the book Contact : For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love. Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan from Contact Sasha and the book she has written embodies Secular Grace and carrie...

My guest this week is Joel Berry, the podcast host of the Petty Prophet Podcast. Both his blog of the same name and the podcast are from the Christian believer and politically conservative perspectives. Joel is very much a believer. He had listened to the Graceful Atheist Podcast and was curious enough to initiate a conversation. [Due to fundamentalism] I think that I was teetering, when I was 19,...

And what else would you want from life except to connect with other people … and to talk about things that matter and ask the big questions? My guest this week is Marie D'Elephant the host of the Everyone's Autonomous podcast. Marie has a powerful and unique voice in the secular community. She is passionate about her own autonomy and the autonomy of others. What is next? Since none of that...

What happens when you are married to a person based on your mutual faith and one of you deconverts? My guest this week is Sarah who is a believer married to a former Christian and now atheist deconvert. Sarah describes herself as "born again." She is a dedicated Christian who is very active in her church preaching and teaching. Her integrity, honesty, and heart for people come through with...

My guest this week is Janice Selbie. Janice is a Registered Professional Counselor (RPC) in Canada helping people through religious trauma syndrome. Janice is the director of the Conference on Religious Trauma . Janice's personal story of fundamentalism, tragedy and eventual freedom is inspiringly and honestly told on the episode. Was it possible that everything I had believed had been wrong?...

My guest today is Brian Peck. He is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) who specializes in religious-based trauma in his private practice and who helps guide individuals through their deconversions with evidence-based practices online. His practice is called Room to thrive and Brian describes it as "secular therapy for human well being." It is trauma-informed therapy and coaching. Bri...

My guest is Laura Anderson. We discuss religious abuse, religious trauma and the difference between them. Abuse is the thing that happened to you. Trauma is the experience that your body or nervous system has as a response to the thing that happened to you. Laura is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of Tennessee, a Professor of Psychology and an Approved Supervisor through the...

My guest today is Captain Cassidy. Cassidy blogs at Roll To Disbelieve on patheos.com. Her focus is on deconversion, counter-apologetics and generally describing the mind-warping nature of religion. Cassidy has an array of metaphors and analogies in her writing that make a vivid picture of what it is like to believe and then not to. Cassidy's "Extimony": She is a former Catholic, was b...

My guest today is Bret Gallatin. Bret is a secular humanist activist. He is about to launch a new podcast covering secular matters and politics. What you believe affects everybody, it doesn't just affect you. Bret is a pastor's kid. More than that he is a member of a multi-generational Evangelical family. He was expected to go into the family business. He was on track to do so, going to bi...

Today's show is a Deconversion Anonymous episode. My guest today is Fred. Fred is a relatively new deconvert who is not entirely out as a non-believer. He has told his son, but no other family members including his wife. Fred grew up Catholic then his family discovered charismatic Catholicism. He has moved through various charismatic protestant churches during his adult life. He still particip...