Deconverted Quotes

“Theirs was the snot-nosed, sticky-fingered world of peanut butter sandwiches and cartoons, playgrounds and superhero pajamas, crayons and pop-up books, booster chairs and midday naps. Their world existed no farther than the reach of their tiny arms. They were new. Innocent. Vulnerable. Yet they were somehow able to take personal and public responsibility for a hard-wired sin nature, implored to pledge allegiance to an invisible overlord they could not see, and charged to prevent their own torture in a nasty, horrible place that the Vacation Bible School teachers called Hell.”
― Seth Andrews, Deconverted: a Journey from Religion to Reason

“Richard Dawkins had hit the nail on the head in his 2006 book, “The God Delusion,” with the assertion that children accept freely the teachings of their parents as fact. My friend Bill Morgan, an apostate who was on the founding staff of Oral Roberts University in the 60s, likened religious indoctrination to installing a program on a child’s mental hard drive. Parents write the code and install the software, but their religious program carries no uninstall solution. As with any computer program, the code can be wiped and replaced, but only by outside means, often requiring painstaking effort, and in many instances, the user has no idea the removal option is even there.”
― Seth Andrews, Deconverted: A Journey from Religion to Reason

“Still reeling with scripture shock, I moved even further from reaction toward pro-action, deciding to officially present my concerns to Christian family members, friends, associates and even clergy. Was I missing something? How many others out there had been duped? What would the reaction be?
It was as much a social experiment as anything. I struck up conversations. I wrote letters. I joined forums. I attended apologetics conferences. I had long lunches with educated believers. I started random Facebook threads challenging specific scriptures. I lobbed tough questions and absorbed the return volleys.
I kept this up for about a year. It was fascinating. It was excruciating. Day after day, letter after letter, conversation after conversation, I encountered a litany of unimpressive, vague and often ridiculous explanations from otherwise intelligent people. Some responses were wispy and sweet. Others were defensive and defiant. Some spoke romantically about personal experiences. Others barked the hard catchphrases of apologetics. Many became defensive. (As I sifted through the responses and the personalities behind them, I also found patterns so recognizable and predictable that I eventually placed the personality types into four basic categories: the Feeler, the Theologian, the Folklorist and the Foot Soldier. I explain these categories in the next chapter).”
― Seth Andrews, Deconverted: A Journey from Religion to Reason