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Why Is The Word "deconverted" Being Used?


sdelsolray

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A simple question.  If I use the word "deconvert" when describing a journey away from a religion, say Christianity, that implies that I originally converted to Christianity (from some other religion) in the first place.

 

Why is this word used?

 

Wouldn't words like "rejected" (as in "I have rejected [a particular religion]") or "dismissed" (as in "I have dismissed [a particular religion]") or "converted" (as in "I have converted from [a particular religion]" be more accurate?

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You're technically right.  However, I kinda like the word deconverted because it sounds a little subversive.

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Good point, it's really not accurate. "Became unbrainwashed" is kind of cumbersome.

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A simple question. If I use the word "deconvert" when describing a journey away from a religion, say Christianity, that implies that I originally converted to Christianity (from some other religion) in the first place.

 

Why is this word used?

 

Wouldn't words like "rejected" (as in "I have rejected [a particular religion]") or "dismissed" (as in "I have dismissed [a particular religion]") or "converted" (as in "I have converted from [a particular religion]" be more accurate?

I can use another but it's mainly to NOT use the word reject. Gives them too much satisfaction if I do. "Ahhh so you DO reject God's love" etc.
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You had to be lead to and taught Christianity originally, no one comes to those ideas by themselves. So every Christian started agnostic before they understood and were converted to religion usually by their parents.

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One "converts" from a non-believer into a believer and "de-converts" when they reject their former beliefs. That might not be technically correct but it does paint a picture of what has transpired.

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Recanted is accurate but everyone understands that people get converted to a religion and therefore become a convert; the opposite would be to de-convert, even though that might not be the most grammatically correct. The word is finding acceptance.  http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/deconvert

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If anyone asks (and they usually don't because I have no interaction with fundies), I tell them I defected.

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These responses all make sense.  I think I would prefer the word "deindoctrinated".

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These responses all make sense.  I think I would prefer the word "deindoctrinated".

 

How about "exdoctrinated"?

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I use the word deconverted because I don't know what else to call it.  I didn't realize that converted implies that you came from a different religion.  My experience with Christianity leaves me with words like infidel and heretic.  Those are not acceptable.  Seems like the English language needs to evolve.

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http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/convert

 

a :  to bring over from one belief, view, or party to another

 

 

One need not have a religion in order to convert to one. One may convert from an atheist view or any belief contrary to the religion being converted to.

 

Having undone my conversion, I must therefore be de-converted!

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"...move on from.."

 

 

kL

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http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/convert

 

a :  to bring over from one belief, view, or party to another

 

 

One need not have a religion in order to convert to one. One may convert from an atheist view or any belief contrary to the religion being converted to.

 

Having undone my conversion, I must therefore be de-converted!

Sound like the word "convert" would be more appropriate (from one belief to another).  E.g., "I converted from Christianity to [fill in the blank]."

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If anyone asks (and they usually don't because I have no interaction with fundies), I tell them I defected.

I wouldn't put it that way myself, as I don't want to give them any easy leverage to twist it into saying that we are defected.

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http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/convert

 

a :  to bring over from one belief, view, or party to another

 

 

One need not have a religion in order to convert to one. One may convert from an atheist view or any belief contrary to the religion being converted to.

 

Having undone my conversion, I must therefore be de-converted!

Sound like the word "convert" would be more appropriate (from one belief to another).  E.g., "I converted from Christianity to [fill in the blank]."

 

 

 

*raises hand*

 

Oh, oh, oh . . . I know!

 

 

I converted from Christianity to rational thinking.

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I use it to distinguish from the Christian idea of "falling away". It was a conscious choice and action on my part to undo what I had done, the only natural conclusion to figuring out that I had converted to believing a set of lies and had been using them to interpret reality.

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A simple question.  If I use the word "deconvert" when describing a journey away from a religion, say Christianity, that implies that I originally converted to Christianity (from some other religion) in the first place.

 

Why is this word used?

 

Wouldn't words like "rejected" (as in "I have rejected [a particular religion]") or "dismissed" (as in "I have dismissed [a particular religion]") or "converted" (as in "I have converted from [a particular religion]" be more accurate?

It is a proper word.

 

 

deconvert (third-person singular simple present deconvertspresent participle deconvertingsimple past and past participle deconverted)

  1. (intransitive) To undergo a deconversion from a religion, faith or belief or (transitive) to induce (someone) to reject a particular religionfaith, or belief [quotations ▼] She has deconverted from Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc. They tried to deconvert him.
  2. (intransitive) To revert or (transitive) to restore [quotations ▼]
  3. (transitive) To change a building that has been converted to a new use back to its original use; specifically to change a house that has been converted into apartments or flats back to a single-family dwelling [quotations ▼]

 

Examples of usages, already from 1933: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Citations:deconvert#English

 

  • 1933, Sinclair Lewis, Ann Vickers, Doubleday, Doran & company, inc., p. 80 Oh, I'm not going to try to deconvert them. No! Let them keep their faith, if they like it.

or

 

  • 1961, Catholic University of America, Herman Joseph Heuser, The American Ecclesiastical Review, Catholic University of America Press, etc., p. 236, The very devout and older Catholics are naturally inclined to see in the sudden North American fury to deconvert and decatholicize Hispanic America an enterprise that is not inspired by Christ but by the Devil, some sort of spiritual rape of the Latin republics.  

 

The word is used even by religious people. Another word, a synonym, is apostasy or religious disaffiliation.

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You had to be lead to and taught Christianity originally, no one comes to those ideas by themselves. So every Christian started agnostic before they understood and were converted to religion usually by their parents.

 

this. the term is accurate for this reason. No one is born christian. One converts from non christian to christian. You could just say you convereted again but that is dependent on what you convert to. if you revert back to not having god rather than replacing him with another I would say that is a deconversion.

 

It might be semantics but I think it works and people understand you when you use that term.

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