Changing your mind about the belief system that’s defined your life is a rare occurrence, one that demands an uncommon degree of courage and intellectual honesty. For obvious reasons, it’s something that atheist bloggers don’t expect to see too often, even if most of us would say that helping it happen is the whole purpose of our writing.
But that doesn’t mean it never happens. Here’s an e-mail I got a few days ago, whose author, Brent, gave me permission to share it with you:
Hello,
I was a committed conservative/Evangelical Christian for my entire life. About 6 years ago (in my early 40s) I stumbled across two blogs written by atheists, and shortly thereafter found your “Ebon Musings” writings. After about a 2 year process of wrestling with questions and doubts, I reached the conclusion that Christianity is not true. I just came out to my wife, kids, extended family, and broader acquaintances two weeks ago as a non-Christian.
I want to thank you, so much, for your writing. I don’t exaggerate when I say your writing was the single most influential thing in my process, when for the first time I considered what non-theists themselves say (not just what Christians say they say), and looked for the best non-theist arguments to engage with.
This is another piece of evidence for the theory that the internet is killing religion. Thanks to the internet, all the atheistic arguments made through the ages are at a person’s fingertips, accessible and just a search away. I have no doubt that Brent deserves the lion’s share of the credit for his own deconversion – if it hadn’t been my writings, it might well have been someone else’s. But people who have that latent seed may still need a little outside help to get it to burst forth and flower.