Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists

by Dan Barker

So, not with any real purpose in mind, I began to scratch this intellectual itch. I read some science magazines, some philosophy, psychology and daily newspapers (!), and began to catch up on the true liberal arts education I would have had years before if I had gone to a real college. This triggered what later became a ravenous appetite to learn, and produced a slow but steady migration across the theological spectrum that took about four or five years. I was not aiming for doubt or atheism. I thought each little move was the last one. “Ah, I’m growing more mature in my beliefs,” I told myself. I originally thought my faith was being strengthened by this additional information, when it was actually my knowledge that was being strengthened. I had no sudden, eye-opening experience. When you are raised like I was, you don’t just wake up one morning, snap your fingers and say, “Oh, silly me! There’s no God.” It was a slow, sometimes wrenching, halting, circuitous process.