The Deconversion Biography Genre

By J. P Holding -




I posted a vid on my TektonTV channel today that illustrates one of my favorite themes, which is  that some things never change.




I've probably read a couple of couple of dozen "deconversion biographies" by people like John Loftus, Gary Lenaire, Valerie Tarico, and so on. I even wrote about the genre for the Christian Research Journal. It doesn't matter who writes them, they're always the same story in different words. As Nick says in the vid, "They're SOOOOO formulaic!"




Sure, some of that has to do with the natural chronology of a person's life. But when you have so many of these pretending to have claimed the high ground, it's just an annoyance, not a truism. E.g., Gary Lenaire calling his book a "eye opener" when it's filled with garbage like, "The Council of Nicaea voted  on the New Testament in 324 AD."


Despite his hot air, John Loftus, the dean of the genre, isn't any better. He's still using arguments that earned him a laugh track on TheologyWeb back in 2006 or so before I caught him with that "fake blog trick." (Don't know that story? Maybe I'll write a blog entry about it.)


Frankly, you could switch the covers on these in the bookstore and I doubt anyone would know the difference. Which is funny, because I'm sure they say that about "conversion" stories.

Comments

Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said…
nice article man, the decon can n ever do what the conversion story does, you can't sense the lack of God. The most you can do is realize you accept someone's idea of God.
2/10/2017 09:37:00 AM
im-skeptical said…
You left out the MAIN INGREDIENT in the formula, and this is what apologists don't include in their own recipe. It's something called REASON.
2/11/2017 12:08:00 PM
im-skeptical said…
For a more realistic view of conversion stories (based on actually reading many of them), see this.
2/11/2017 07:41:00 PM
Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said…
I know you have to mouth the BS bromide that atheists ration a but there being no God but you don't, you do not use reason, you haven not come to that conclusion based upon reason.

anyone who reads my conversion story on Doxa will see that reason was obviously an integral part of the process.

2/11/2017 08:18:00 PM
Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said…
I don't believe that when a person gives up truth and begins to moth the brides of atheism that even counts as conversation," Brainwashing i not conversion,
2/11/2017 08:21:00 PM
im-skeptical said…
anyone who reads my conversion story on Doxa will see that reason was obviously an integral part of the process

Are there any Christian bloggers who do not claim to be converted ex-atheists? Your childhood indoctrination was stronger than you know. You were never an atheist. You never had a clue what it means to think like one. This is your real conversion story.
2/11/2017 09:23:00 PM
Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said…
that's pathetic. You are just talking like a fumndie now. Yopu've heard of religious attitudes of "holyer than thou?" you are "More blasphemous than thou."

I was every bit as atheistic as you are or more sol I a true intellectual atheist and y brother even more so, i had Ray Hiunman to guide e in ny thinking. He was a literary genus so I had a from a form of atheism you know nothing about,lit;s gone now but because literature is dying. That's civilization is dying.

you are makimng assumptions abouit something you know nothing of. That fundie mentality realty spurs rebellion for those who see though it. I would never been a Christian if the Lord had arranged for me to meet someone who exhibited a rare form of christianity that is little known, Spirit filled, intellectual, mystic.
2/12/2017 01:31:00 AM
im-skeptical said…
I was every bit as atheistic as you are or more sol I a true intellectual atheist

Like I said, you never had a clue what it means. If you did, you would at least have a reasonable understanding of science. You don't just lose all that understanding by changing your belief system. No, you never had it to begin with.
2/12/2017 10:32:00 AM
Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said…
I knw a mot more a out science than you do simpleton. you don't even know that teh history of the neutrino constitutes scientific knowledge, you hwavne[t any newton or Boyle

why did Boyle call it:the Srping in the air?.": what is the spring in the air?

you don't know the basic difference in Popper and Kuhn
2/12/2017 11:10:00 AM
im-skeptical said…
what is the spring in the air?

I can't believe you're even asking a question like this. Is this my physics exam? Well, let's see. When spring is in the air, we feel an awakening of the spirit - a renewal of life. But wait - this is supposed to be a physics exam, isn't it? Perhaps you're thinking of the "spring OF the air" that Boyle examined. Or perhaps more to the point, it was the springiness of the air. The relationship between pressure and volume. When you squeeze it down to a smaller volume, the pressure increases. That is to say, it pushes back at you, rather like a spring. I think that's what Boyle was talking about. Not that you'd understand any of the details. Here's a question for you: According to Boyle's law, what happens if you remove the cap from a container of pressurized gas?
2/12/2017 03:17:00 PM
J. P Holding said…
>>> It's something called REASON.

Too bad when they go to the store, they always forget to buy it.
2/12/2017 04:50:00 PM
im-skeptical said…
I would never buy what you're selling.
2/12/2017 05:49:00 PM
im-skeptical said…
Looks like Joe is busy searching google for an answer.
2/12/2017 05:51:00 PM
J. P Holding said…
It's too meaty for you anyway, dessert boy.
2/15/2017 08:19:00 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Many Children in Bethlehem Did Herod Kill?

By -
A couple of months ago, I wrote a post about the Gospel of Matthew’s account of the slaughter of the innocents. Therein, I argued that some of the skepticism about the account was unjustified. One argument I made was that the number of children killed in Bethlehem would likely have been no more than 20. Though obviously an act of great evil, the killing of 20 children would be much less likely to be noticed by historians of the time than the slaughter of thousands as later traditions speculated. In response to the post, Peter Kirby asked a few questions. He has patiently waited my response, continuously delayed by work, family, and the completion of my Acts article . Two of the questions had to do with how the amount of 20 was determined. Others with the omission of the account by Luke and the reliability of the tradition recounted by Macrobius. Peter also mentioned that there were other reasons to doubt the story's historicity beyond just the silence of other sources. I
Read more

The Bogus Gandhi Quote

By J. P Holding -
Image
I first made this post in 2012, and since then I've made a sort of mini-career out of tracking down bogus quotes like this one (including a video version below). It's a sort of fun microcosm of the way information is mishandled in the Information Age. ** I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. – Mahatma Gandhi A Christian can probably expect to get this quote thrown at them at least once in their lifetime, and waved in their face many more. I had it put to me recently, but my experience with this sort of thing immediately led me to wonder -- is it real? The evidence at this point seems to be no. The first signal of a problem was that anywhere I found it, no source was given. That's often a sign that something is being passed around uncritically. Whether online sources or books, no one seemed to have a source for this quote. A second warning was that the quote has been given more than one context. As
Read more

Where did Jesus say "It is better to give than receive?"

By -
A visitor to the CADRE site recently sent a question about Paul's statement in Acts 20:35 which records Paul as saying, "And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, 'It is better to give than to receive'." The reader wanted to know where Jesus said this. This was my answer: You are correct in noting that this saying of Jesus quoted by Paul is not found anywhere in the four Gospels. My own study Bible says "This is a rare instance of a saying of Jesus not found in the canonical Gospels." Does the fact that it isn't stated in the Gospels mean that it isn't reliably from the lips of Jesus? I don't think so. The Apolstle John said at the end of his Gospel (John 21:25): "Jesus did many other things as well.If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." Obviously, this is exaggeration for the sake of making a point, but it means that Jesus
Read more

Discussing Embryonic Stem Cell Research

By -
Stand to Reason has published a list of "talking points" that can be used as a quick reference sheet for answering questions about embryonic stem cell research and why people ought to oppose this procedure. The piece, entitled "Are you against stem cell research and cloning?" give good, concise answers to some of the questions that arise concerning why Christians would oppose this procedure when it supposedly holds such great promise. For example, consider the following from the "talking points": Where do we get human embryonic stem cells? We can only derive human embryonic stem cells by killing a human embryo. Removing its stem cells leaves it with no cells from which to build the organs of its body. What is the embryo? An embryo is a living, whole, human organism (a human being) in the embryonic stage. All the embryo needs to live is a proper environment and adequate nutrition, the very same thing all infants, toddlers, adolescents, and adults need.
Read more

Revamping and New Articles at the CADRE Site

By -
We have changed the Christian History page at the CADRE site from the old design to the new one. The focus of the revamped page has expanded, with many new articles: This page provides links to websites and articles relating to Christian history, including theological development, notable figures, contributions of Christianity to society and culture, and the archaeological evidence for the facts of the Bible. We have also added four new articles by Darin Wood, PhD: John Chrysostum: His Life, Legacy, and Influence Dr. Wood provides an informative sketch of Chrysostum's life, as well as an exploration into his writings and impact on church evangelism. The Righteousness of God in the Pauline Corpus Dr. Wood examines the crucial role that righteousness plays in understanding Paul's perspectives on justification, propitiation, expiation, and covenant. The Structure of the Apocalypse Dr. Wood provides an in-depth analysis of the structure (or structures) behind the Book o
Read more

Tillich, part 2: What does it mean to say "God is Being Itself?"

By -
 In this essay, which is a chapter from the new book I'm now working on, I'm moving toward defining what I think Tillich means exactly by being itself. It's a long journey but an important one. What does Tillich actually mean by “being itself?” Does he mean the same things as other theologians who use the phrase? It’s a mysterious sounding phrase and Tillich never actually comes out and says what he means by it. As I will show there is a reason for this, and I will show what I think that reason in is. In the mean time the task of this chapter is to deduce exactly what Tillich actually means by this phrase. There are three basic possibilities: Three alternatives as to meaning (1) The basic fact that things exist is all that the concept of “God” amounts to. (2) There is a special quality to being, an impersonal aspect” ground of being” or “being itself” and that quality constitutes ‘the divine.’ This possibility excludes God as “king of the universe.” (3) God is b
Read more

A Botched Abortion Shows the Lies of Pro-Choice Proponents

By -
One of the classes I teach at the university is a course on Ethics, and I am using a book by Ralph Dolgoff, Donna Harrington and Frank M. Lowenberg entitled " Ethical Decisions for Social Work Practice " as the text. Overall, I think that it is a good Ethics textbook largely because it provides a balanced viewpoint on the need for values in social work. For example, the book makes the argument (without committing to it) that those engaged in social work cannot avoid making value judgments in ethical decisions because trying to do what is right necessarily involves making an value choice. Also, I book notes that some (including me) think it is ethically wrong for a social worker to cover-up her own values when counseling another person because it creates a false (and ultimately unproductive) relationship with the person being counseled. Still, one of the exemplars in the book gave me pause – not because I thought it raised a deep ethical quandary, but because I wondered how
Read more

The Folded Napkin Legend

By J. P Holding -
I wrote about t his "urban legend" a few years ago, but it's typical of the silly urban legends we hear about now and then, such as the idea that the head of Proctor and Gamble went on Oprah to pledge his allegiance to Satanism. Christians are no less gullible for this sort of nonsense than anyone else, and frankly, some seem more gullible to believe anything that they consider "edifying". It's no wonder we're mesmerized by self-comfort tunes like "I Can Only Imagine" that contain about as much useful theology as a thimble. ** The Gospel of John (20:7) tells us that the napkin, which was placed over the face of Jesus, was not just thrown aside like the grave clothes. The Bible takes an entire verse to tell us that the napkin was neatly folded, and was placed at the head of that stony coffin.... In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, you have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day. The fol
Read more

Exodus 22:18 - Are Followers of God to Kill Witches?

By -
Image
A few days ago I stumbled upon an article published on a website named Haaretz which appears to be a news site for Israeli news. The article entitled " Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live: A Murderous Translation ," discussed the correct understanding of Exodus 22:18. According to the Haaretz article (authored by Elizabeth Sloane), the word "witch" may have been an erroneous translation. And, to read into Ms. Sloane's argument just a bit, the erroneous translation contributed to the deaths of many innocent witches. Specifically, she notes: This quote, found in the King James Version of the Bible, has been widely held responsible for the witch burnings that plagued Europe, and later America, in the Early Modern Period (1450 C.E. – 1750 C.E.). But the murderous practice may have all been the result of a Biblical mistranslation. Now, as I am not an expert on ancient Hebrew, I need to approach translation issues such as this by accessing sources readily
Read more

A Non-Biblical Historian Accepts the Key "Minimum Facts" Supporting Jesus' Resurrection

By -
In their book, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus , Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona argue for the historical reality of Jesus' bodily resurrection using the "minimum facts" approach. Rather than get bogged down in inerrancy and other debates, they focus on the key facts demonstrating Jesus' resurrection. For them, the key facts are: *Jesus' death by crucifixion. *Disciples' Beliefs that Jesus Appeared. *Conversion of Paul. *Conversion of James. *Empty Tomb. William L. Craig, another significant apologist for the historical bodily resurrection of Jesus likewise focuses, in his accessible The Son Rises , on the empty tomb and Jesus' resurrection appearance. Craig gives special emphasis to Jesus' honorable burial by Joseph of Arimathea and Jesus' appearances to James and Paul and their subsequent commitment to the Christian cause. Craig, Licona, and Habermas argue that these basic facts are generally supported by most of the relevant sc
Read more