♦ Fuego ♦ Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 This is a 2 hour video interview of an ex-preacher on the YouTube channel Harmonic Atheist. I found especially the last third to echo so many of my own realizations about my former faith, and so I'm posting it here. For example, how an emotional shock is often needed to cut through the mental/emotional programming of the faith; how we often criticized cults without realizing we were in one, and how crazy the beliefs are like eating the flesh and blood of Jesus and singing songs about his blood washing us clean; how the god of the bible is a nutcase abuser who clearly does NOT love unconditionally, and that believers are conditioned to blame themselves and not make the abuser angry. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator TABA Posted January 21 Moderator Share Posted January 21 Thanks for sharing this. There are a lot of compelling deconversion stories on that channel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ Fuego ♦ Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 That's what I'm seeing now. Lots of resonating things they are saying. The last one was a lady who was a forensic psychologist who had also been with a strong pro-life protest group out of Jerry Fallwell's church. She emphasized that most of the people she speaks with about deconverting have no interest at all in things like the pagan origins of the bible god, the mistakes and forgeries in the New Testament. Instead, they have a simplistic view of a god of love so she describes hell to them and asks them about rescuing their loved ones from torture. If a person can get to the place of saying no to the sadistic torture dished out by an egotistical god, then they are not far from choosing kindness over religion. The ones that are party-line and coldly insist that it is right and good that unbelievers are tortured are the ones that are willing to submit to an abusive god and justify being cruel to others. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ Fuego ♦ Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 Also interesting, I watched a "rebuttal" video by a Christian YT channel (like you can rebut a life experience), and it amounted to dismissal. The ex-pastor talked about how the caring atmosphere in the recovery programs led to more good in lives than the years of condemnation he'd seen in church. The rebuttal wa that AA programs are based on Christianity, so he should be seeing that all the recovery came from Jesus. That's akin to saying caring about others comes from Jesus rather than being a human trait. He'd probably rebut, but all humans were made by God, so it still is true. Many comments were the standard dismissal of "if he left, he was never part of the body" or "did he speak in tongues, if not he wasn't saved", etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator Hierophant Posted February 3 Super Moderator Share Posted February 3 On 1/21/2024 at 6:21 PM, Fuego said: Also interesting, I watched a "rebuttal" video by a Christian YT channel (like you can rebut a life experience), and it amounted to dismissal. The ex-pastor talked about how the caring atmosphere in the recovery programs led to more good in lives than the years of condemnation he'd seen in church. The rebuttal wa that AA programs are based on Christianity, so he should be seeing that all the recovery came from Jesus. That's akin to saying caring about others comes from Jesus rather than being a human trait. He'd probably rebut, but all humans were made by God, so it still is true. Many comments were the standard dismissal of "if he left, he was never part of the body" or "did he speak in tongues, if not he wasn't saved", etc. What else are they going to say? If they don't hand wave it, then the cognitive dissonance will be too great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator Hierophant Posted February 3 Super Moderator Share Posted February 3 I listened to the audio book of his story. It was long, and at times tedious, but it did have good information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ Fuego ♦ Posted February 3 Author Share Posted February 3 7 hours ago, Hierophant said: I listened to the audio book of his story. It was long, and at times tedious, but it did have good information. Yeah, that's my main issue with the deconversion/deconstruction videos in general. All are about 2 hours, but generally there are some good issues raised and discussed. I like to cut to the chase, but most build the story of how they were raised, how they converted, what church was like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
◊ Weezer ◊ Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 On 1/21/2024 at 1:42 PM, Fuego said: That's what I'm seeing now. Lots of resonating things they are saying. The last one was a lady who was a forensic psychologist who had also been with a strong pro-life protest group out of Jerry Fallwell's church. She emphasized that most of the people she speaks with about deconverting have no interest at all in things like the pagan origins of the bible god, the mistakes and forgeries in the New Testament. Instead, they have a simplistic view of a god of love so she describes hell to them and asks them about rescuing their loved ones from torture. If a person can get to the place of saying no to the sadistic torture dished out by an egotistical god, then they are not far from choosing kindness over religion. The ones that are party-line and coldly insist that it is right and good that unbelievers are tortured are the ones that are willing to submit to an abusive god and justify being cruel to others. Google the definition of "psychological denial". With some people, questioning god/religion is such a scary issue that their mind will NOT let them go there. It seems that religious beliefs, even if it does not look like it on the surface, run to the depth of their being. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
◊ Weezer ◊ Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 13 hours ago, Fuego said: Yeah, that's my main issue with the deconversion/deconstruction videos in general. All are about 2 hours, but generally there are some good issues raised and discussed. I like to cut to the chase, but most build the story of how they were raised, how they converted, what church was like. Thanks for saying that. I think I need to go back and rewrite some of my story. Leave out some of the childhood and early church experience, and get to the meat of the issues of inconsistancy of divine intervention, etc. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ Fuego ♦ Posted February 8 Author Share Posted February 8 I suppose that the flip side of that is to "prove" that we really were believers, but then again, to whom are we proving it? In my own deconversion "book" I don't know that I ever engage the emotions of the reader, so it comes across even to me as a bit dry, even though the deconstruction of the hidden world of True Believers for those outside the church is valuable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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