Why do people walk away from the Christian faith? Call it what you want — apostasy or deconversion, the question for us today is Why? Is there a bottom line or a core reason, or does it differ so much from person to person that we have to answer “For many reasons”?
To what extent do you think the need for intellectual coherence is a product of the Enlightenment? How do pre-Enlightenment decoversion stories differ from post-Enlightenment stories?
I have interacted with many skeptics over the years including some correspondence with both Loftus and Ehrman. I have found that many become disillusioned when they realize that the Christian faith does not offer mathematical certitude. Rather, it is "faith seeking understanding." Once again, I give a shoutout for Lesslie Newbigin's brilliant book, Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship.
Thank you for this, Scot! To me, it seems that many of my peers who have left the faith have done so because they found the standard of sexual morality in scripture too burdensome. This certainly plays into a desire for autonomy/freedom to make decisions aside from the will of God. In addition to this, many millennial women are leaving the church because they find they simply cannot find a good Christian man to marry, and they do not wish to be alone. How do you think the church can better minister to this demographic? Thanks!
I guess my question is - what is considered orthodox Christian faith? Who gets to decide? I have gone through many de-conversions, and my faith looks much different today than it did a few years ago. And I know people who would tell me that changing one's belief on issues like creation, women in ministry, the nature of hell, etc. is a de-conversion from Christianity. Would it be fair to say that it is a de-conversion from a denomination or theological system, but not from the Christian faith?
Language and interpretation is hard, especially reading posts and trying to decipher what is meant. While there is a lot of richness here, one sentence didn't sit right with me: "The person's looking for independence from something." I'd like to have this unpacked more I think. My experience, as limited as it may be, is that people that "lose faith" "move on from faith" or "leaves the faith" aren't looking for independence from something as much as they are looking for a proper thing or place to be dependent upon. I think often we see someone that is questioning or leaving the faith as someone who thinks they know better or are seeking a better situation in order to justify their own behaviors, etc. I think there is more frailty there; more lostness there than we give the situation credit for.
“… those who leave the faith feel like jilted lovers or even betrayed by the one they loved.” Fantastic insight here, sir. In your research and comparisons, does this analogy seem to hold true for conversion TO strains of Christianity? That their former way of life “betrayed” them? We often conceptualize the motivation to evangelize as positive (to effect change in the evangelized) not negative (to inflict damage to the subgroup potentially being decolonized), but we are (understandably) more charitable in that viewpoint to those we seem to “side with”.
People seem to rethink BIG things after an event that causes dissonance in their personal lives; a relationship, a difficult experience or connecting with people in a different culture, etc. The experience reveals a weakness in the persons worldview which causes them to reconsider it at a more conscious level. In my personal case I left inerrancy of scripture, eternal conscious torment, and the idea that soteriology/salvation is connected to a person's religious beliefs/correct doctrine. Human beliefs are dictated by geography, human relationships, personality and people have unequal access to the gospel. Faith is not the result of an exercise in pure reason. Even the existence of people like Bart Ehrman who in good faith studied the scriptures and became an agnostic, or the existence of a saint like Gandhi means that we need a revolution in how we think about salvation, who is in/out.
On Leaving the Faith
To what extent do you think the need for intellectual coherence is a product of the Enlightenment? How do pre-Enlightenment decoversion stories differ from post-Enlightenment stories?
Good post, Scot!
I have interacted with many skeptics over the years including some correspondence with both Loftus and Ehrman. I have found that many become disillusioned when they realize that the Christian faith does not offer mathematical certitude. Rather, it is "faith seeking understanding." Once again, I give a shoutout for Lesslie Newbigin's brilliant book, Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship.
Thank you for this, Scot! To me, it seems that many of my peers who have left the faith have done so because they found the standard of sexual morality in scripture too burdensome. This certainly plays into a desire for autonomy/freedom to make decisions aside from the will of God. In addition to this, many millennial women are leaving the church because they find they simply cannot find a good Christian man to marry, and they do not wish to be alone. How do you think the church can better minister to this demographic? Thanks!
I guess my question is - what is considered orthodox Christian faith? Who gets to decide? I have gone through many de-conversions, and my faith looks much different today than it did a few years ago. And I know people who would tell me that changing one's belief on issues like creation, women in ministry, the nature of hell, etc. is a de-conversion from Christianity. Would it be fair to say that it is a de-conversion from a denomination or theological system, but not from the Christian faith?
Such an interesting post - thanks for posting it.
Language and interpretation is hard, especially reading posts and trying to decipher what is meant. While there is a lot of richness here, one sentence didn't sit right with me: "The person's looking for independence from something." I'd like to have this unpacked more I think. My experience, as limited as it may be, is that people that "lose faith" "move on from faith" or "leaves the faith" aren't looking for independence from something as much as they are looking for a proper thing or place to be dependent upon. I think often we see someone that is questioning or leaving the faith as someone who thinks they know better or are seeking a better situation in order to justify their own behaviors, etc. I think there is more frailty there; more lostness there than we give the situation credit for.
Thanks for reading :)
“… those who leave the faith feel like jilted lovers or even betrayed by the one they loved.” Fantastic insight here, sir. In your research and comparisons, does this analogy seem to hold true for conversion TO strains of Christianity? That their former way of life “betrayed” them? We often conceptualize the motivation to evangelize as positive (to effect change in the evangelized) not negative (to inflict damage to the subgroup potentially being decolonized), but we are (understandably) more charitable in that viewpoint to those we seem to “side with”.
People seem to rethink BIG things after an event that causes dissonance in their personal lives; a relationship, a difficult experience or connecting with people in a different culture, etc. The experience reveals a weakness in the persons worldview which causes them to reconsider it at a more conscious level. In my personal case I left inerrancy of scripture, eternal conscious torment, and the idea that soteriology/salvation is connected to a person's religious beliefs/correct doctrine. Human beliefs are dictated by geography, human relationships, personality and people have unequal access to the gospel. Faith is not the result of an exercise in pure reason. Even the existence of people like Bart Ehrman who in good faith studied the scriptures and became an agnostic, or the existence of a saint like Gandhi means that we need a revolution in how we think about salvation, who is in/out.