What makes you atheist

Conversely, functional definitions describe what role religion might have for its followers, such as answering questions of life meaning Schilbrack God, sacred objects, rituals, and moral codes that might be present in a religion to a greater or lesser extent Cohn and Klausner ; Alston A proper definition, as de Muckadell explains , must describe the essential features of religion, that is, the necessary and sufficient conditions that make a system of beliefs a religion.

Although religion is malleable and changes overtime, substantive definitions can still address this aspect by being sufficiently vague as to permit a range of phenomena.

Functional definitions, on the other hand, tend to be too vague and excessively inclusive, while prototypical definitions fail to distinguish the centrality of each feature. This definition covers what Argyle and Beit-Hallahmi observe as the common denominators of religions worldwide: the presence of a supernatural being or force and the relationship that human beings have with such entity.

Sunday mass , and commitment to organized religion. Similarly, the construct of spirituality is also related to beliefs, but adopts a more subjective relationship with a higher power or transcendental reality, without the need for organizational involvement Zinnbauer et al.

By contrast, atheism is defined as the absence of belief in the existence of God or the belief that God does not exist Martin Whilst secular, non-religious individuals show ranging degrees of disbelief, more than half identify as atheist Galen Deconversion is a relatively new term within the psychology of religion Streib et al. As a phenomenon it has been conceptualized under a number of different definitions, making it difficult to identify a clear description Bromley In other words, deconversion is a process that implies the diminution of religiosity over time resulting in the adoption of a non-religious identity in the form of atheism or, at the very least, agnosticism.

For example, Streib et al. The first case, however, represents an instance of religious switching, and the second case represents only a disaffiliation from the organized element of religion.

Therefore, only the third case would qualify as deconversion McAdams For Cragun and Hammer the use of the term deconversion is unwarranted and conversion should be used instead. The problem with this conceptualization, however, is that it overlooks the direction and the result of this change. To say that a person who exits a religion has converted falls short as a description and does not do justice to the type of transformation. Those who become atheists have shredded the religious aspect of their lives and as a result they no longer hold a religious identity.

In fact, the formation of an atheist identity resides in the rejection of theism and faith Smith Therefore, it could be argued that although an individual who becomes an atheist experiences a change in religious identity, the distinctive outcome of this change is, more precisely, the abandonment of a religious identity and the adoption of a non -religious one.

The term deconversion is necessary because the narratives and elements involved in this process are qualitatively distinct from those present in conversion stories Barbour, For example, Fazzino compares conversion and deconversion journeys, showing that, although they share basic structural aspects ideological shifts, emotional responses, self-transformations , the nature of these aspects is different. Namely, conversion stories often involve feelings of security, assurance, and certainty, whereas in deconversion individuals tend to feel guilt, alienation, and eventually freedom.

Other frequently used terms applied to the phenomenon of religious deconversion are apostasy and disaffiliation. These definitions are not incorrect from a descriptive point of view, but, as Cragun and Hammer argue, apostasy is a term used pejoratively by those who remain religious. Therefore, apostasy and disaffiliation are not better suited than deconversion to describe the phenomena addressed in the present study. As with most disciplines, the field of psychology of religion has not been free of certain biases taking the form of assumptions that have in turn influenced the research, results, and type of knowledge produced Belzen Three of these biases are explained here.

First, religion is assumed to be universal, and every person is expected to be religious in one way or another by default.

Ultimate concerns refer to concerns that deal with questions of life meaning, rendering all other considerations secondary. In other words, as long as a person is occupied with these existential matters which are, of course, legitimate he or she can be considered religious.

However, although religion deals with ultimate concerns, it is not in itself the same as ultimate concerns. As a form of analogy, this would be similar to confusing a type of food with the feeling of hunger; the existence of the need itself must not be confused with the means whereby the need is satisfied.

As discussed previously, religion has at its core a supernatural element as well as the human relationship with it, and this is the way most people understand it. Therefore, the likening of religion to the over-encompassing concept of ultimate concerns departs from conventional ways of thinking about religiosity, and in turn, makes non-religious perspectives difficult to conceive.

In this fashion, non-religion is defined out of existence Campbell A second assumption stems from the first, where a similar tendency for universalization is applied to the concept of faith. The work of theologian James Fowler on faith development has proved influential in this respect, generating theory as well as methods of research in the form of faith development interviews Fowler et al. For example, a cross-cultural study on deconversion conducted by Streib et al. Given that atheism is characterized by the absence of faith Altemeyer and Hunsberger , it appears counterintuitive to state that those who identified as non-religious had a sense of faith more developed than religious persons themselves.

It certainly seems that Streib et al. Thirdly, existing theories within the psychology of religion suggest a positive link between higher levels of religiosity and spirituality and physical and mental health Hood Jr et al. However, most of the research that has been considered to propose this link suffers from the same caveat: a failure to differentiate those with low religiosity from the non-religious.

Rather than addressing the full spectrum from non-belief to strong belief, studies typically use measures such as church attendance, thus confounding religiosity with other variables like social capital, support, and group participation Galen Conversely, lower levels of wellbeing correspond to uncertainty and doubts about cherished beliefs Donelson ; Galen and Kloet ; Ross Furthermore, Kier and Davenport argue that uncritically accepting that religiosity promotes mental health, as a number of researchers have claimed e.

Hill and Pargament ; Miller and Thoresen , or that spirituality is a necessary part of the human condition Sue et al. Non-religion studies is a relatively new field that focuses on phenomena such as atheism, agnosticism, secularism and their relationship with other areas of research.

The literature on deconversion suggests that deconversion involves a very gradual change, which tends to happen during adolescence and early adulthood Altemeyer and Hunsberger ; Brewster ; Hunsberger and Altemeyer ; Streib et al.

These four aspects of deconversion are commonly driven by discrepancies between a what one would expect from the world if religious tenets and beliefs were true and b what one sees and experiences in life.

Furthermore, Barbour indicates that the abandonment of religious belief is also linked to striving for personal independence and identity in the immediate context of a religious family. In a similar vein, Brewster states that deconversion in the United States, where the majority is religious, is related to a process of individualization such as leaving the family home to attend college. Based on an American sample, Smith argues that atheists form their identity based on the rejection of theism.

That is, atheists create their identity by emphasizing the behaviors they do not engage in and the beliefs they do not hold. A recurrent theme in the literature is the undermining effect of an intellectual orientation on religiosity Altemeyer and Hunsberger ; Barbour ; Caplovitz and Sherrow ; Fazzino ; Galen ; Hunsberger and Altemeyer ; Hunsberger and Brown ; Zuckerman For example, drawing on data from interviews with students who became atheists after a strong religious upbringing, Altemeyer and Hunsberger affirm that these students had considerably more questions and doubts compared to their religious counterparts.

According to the authors, these questions were characterized by belonging to the realm of ideas rather than emotional matters. In trying to resolve these issues some students asked for help from other people but were typically unsatisfied with the answers received.

Moreover, reading about history, science, social issues, and religion has been identified in research old Vetter and Green and new Brewster ; Hunsberger and Altemeyer as a catalyst for the loss of faith.

This means that successful religious training would instill students with a drive to seek truth and integrity to such an extent that they would also assess the truthfulness of their own religion, should they detect any issues within their belief system.

Describing how deconverts dealt with these issues, Altemeyer and Hunsberger noted that individuals prioritized freedom of thought and, having abandoned their previous beliefs, they expressed feelings of confidence, open-mindedness, and being true to themselves.

This reaction against the teachings and traditions received during upbringing is similar to what Hunsberger noted in his observation that doubt and disagreement with parental religious doctrine predicted future deconversion. It is also worth mentioning the work of Dennett and LaScola , who interviewed ex members of the clergy as well as seminary students and professors who had lost their religious beliefs.

This piece of research is of interest because it deals with drastic cases of deconversion: a faithful priest who becomes an atheist, going from one end to the other in the spectrum of religious belief. Naturally, individuals involved in the ministry would have their own particular challenges when abandoning belief, but ultimately these cases still illustrate clear examples of strongly committed religious persons who experience religious deconversion.

The preparation they received did not equip them with the necessary skills to do the preaching their congregations were expecting. Moreover, as their faith eroded, they started to feel hypocritical about the work they were doing. Research on deconversion is still in its infancy and to date has been mostly explorative, descriptive, and atheoretical in nature.

This study seeks to further the understanding of this particular phenomenon, by proposing a model of deconversion that could be used as a possible starting point for future theoretical developments. The present qualitative study was conducted using a grounded theory GT approach.

GT was developed as a set of procedures to collect and analyze data in a systematic and cyclical fashion in order to allow concepts to emerge and generate theories grounded in data Glaser and Strauss We have chosen GT because it offers the opportunity to rigorously generate theory from data in those areas where theory is lacking or poorly developed Henwood and Pidgeon Specifically, we used the Straussian version of GT Strauss and Corbin due to its coding techniques.

By definition, deconversion involves change and the process associated with it, and therefore this coding paradigm dovetails with the aims of this study. Applying Straussian grounded theory, Pinto and Moleiro presented a theoretical model consisting of five stages of gender identity development and transition triggers between stages. Data was collected from two sources: testimonies from The Clergy Project and interviews with participants recruited through Atheist Ireland.

The Clergy Project hereafter CP is a non-profit international organization that provides support for former clergy members who no longer have religious beliefs. This association, based in the United States, has already attracted the attention of some researchers; Dennett and LaScola interviewed many of these ex-clergy members as part of their study, as mentioned in the previous section. In the present study, all 30 online public testimonies from the CP website were used The Clergy Project Clergy testimonies came from mostly male individuals from the United States with a few exceptions , who defected from different religious denominations; these were mainly Baptist, Methodist, Evangelical, Pentecostal and Presbyterian.

The available demographic information from the testimonies is shown in Table 1. These testimonies were collected and used with the permission of the Board President of the CP.

They were compiled into a single document for analysis to be worked on as a whole, since individual testimonies varied in length, averaging words each. Participants for the semi-structured interviews were recruited through advertising on the social media page of Atheist Ireland. Atheist Ireland is an Irish atheist advocacy group founded in that promotes atheism and reason, and an ethical and secular society without special treatment for any religion Atheist Ireland A total of six voluntary participants were purposely sampled based on relevance to the research question i.

With the exception of two participants, their deconversion happened in the Republic of Ireland. Their general demographic information is presented in Table 2. Interviews were arranged with each participant at a convenient location; two were conducted via Skype.

The interviews were semi-structured and questions were designed to foster conversation and stimulate explanations. Consistent with a grounded theory approach, questions were modifiable according to the data analysis from previous interviews. This resulted in three slightly different versions of the interview questionnaire throughout the course of the study. For the purposes of the study, what is important is that both testimonies and interviews show the mechanisms whereby a religious system of belief is replaced by an atheistic worldview.

Moreover, most of the individuals in these samples came from two countries the United States and Ireland that share a common trend: an accelerated secularization from a Christian tradition and a weakened relationship between national identity and religion Cragun Therefore, the analysis of the stories and experiences of deconversion of these 36 individuals serves to address the research question. In line with a GT approach, the study was conducted systematically and consisted of a series of alternated stages of data gathering and data analysis Strauss and Corbin Once the data from the CP testimonies was compiled, the first stage of analysis comprised the following steps.

First, open coding forced a line-by-line in depth analysis to discover concepts in the data. Next, axial coding generated categories, which are concepts at a higher level of abstraction representing a problem, event or phenomena that seems to be significant to the process under study.

Coding consists of analytical strategies such as asking questions to the data e. After this the main categories and subcategories were selected and articulated as contexts, conditions, interactions, and consequences of the central phenomena to yield an initial deconversion explanatory framework.

The technique of constant comparison, involving the examination of similarities and differences between instances of a phenomenon, codes, and categories, was applied during every stage of the analysis. Constant comparison allows for the identification of the common thread within a category as well as the differences between its component elements or subcategories Willig There were three more stages of data analysis, this time using the data gathered from two interviews in each stage.

Open coding, axial coding, and the selection of main categories were applied as before. Subsequently each participant was presented with the analysis of their individual contribution to obtain validation and feedback. They were asked whether the analysis truthfully captured what they tried to express, and if anything had been missed, overemphasized or misinterpreted.

All participants responded, expressing high levels of agreement, positive feedback and some more valuable comments. After analyzing the explanatory framework derived from the CP testimonies in the first stage and the two interviews of the second stage, a general theory started to emerge.

The emergent theory evolved twice more during the third and fourth stages of analysis, to finally reach the current proposed model of deconversion. Memo writing, an important element of GT, was carried out throughout the process.

This was useful to keep a record of the analysis and theory development, capturing ideas, reflections, questions, and alternative explanations. Triangulation between interviews and the CP testimonies, representing individuals from different backgrounds, offered converging categories adding more reliability to the findings. As the main author I turn now to first-person voice to address this section.

I grew up moderately religious, however, during my mid-twenties I started to reflect on my religious views. This, coupled with a growing interest in mythology, philosophy and science, led me to abandon my beliefs and become an atheist. Naturally, I had my own pre-assumptions and ideas on the topic, but I made a conscious effort to put them aside from the beginning of the project.

I tried to maintain a neutral and naive attitude throughout, making sure my findings were grounded in the data and being aware of my own confirmation bias. From an epistemological standpoint, although I favour the view that social reality is mainly socially constructed, I believe that there is an objective reality behind it that can be accessed to some degree, and I avoid notions of extreme relativism and postmodernism.

Human ingenuity rests on a lot more than rational thinking. The ability to make quick decisions, follow our passions and act on intuition are also important human qualities and crucial for our success. It is helpful that we have invented something that, unlike our minds, is rational and evidence-based: science.

When we need proper evidence, science can very often provide it — as long as the topic is testable. Importantly, the scientific evidence does not tend to support the view that atheism is about rational thought and theism is about existential fulfilments. The truth is that humans are not like science — none of us get by without irrational action, nor without sources of existential meaning and comfort.

Fortunately, though, nobody has to. Portsmouth Climate Festival — Portsmouth, Portsmouth. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom.

In Latin it goes Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate or in English Therefore atheists might argue that since the entire universe, and all of creation can be explained by evolution and scientific cosmology, we don't need the existence of another entity called God. William of Occam would not have agreed; he was a Franciscan monk who never doubted the existence of God. But in his century he wasn't breaking the rule named after him.

God was the only explanation available. There are a number of traditional arguments used to prove that God exists; however, none of them convinces atheists. Here they are:. The universe is such a beautiful and orderly thing that it must have been designed. Only God could have designed it. Therefore since the universe exists, God must exist. An atheist might refute this by saying that, actually, the universe is not particularly beautiful and orderly.

And even if it was, why should there be a designer? And modern science shows that most of the natural things we think of as designed are just the products of processes like evolution. We think of God as a perfect being. If God didn't exist he wouldn't be perfect. God is perfect, therefore God exists. Professional philosophers usually reject it on the grounds that existence is not a property of beings.

Everything that happens has a cause. Therefore the universe must have had a cause. That cause must have been God. Therefore since the universe exists, God must exist in order to have caused it to exist.

An atheist might respond by asking what caused God. And what caused the cause of God, and so on. The argument might proceed that if God didn't need a cause, then maybe the universe didn't need a cause either. If God was already perfect before he created the universe, why did he create it?

How did it benefit him? Why would he bother? And if the universe was caused, perhaps something other than God caused it? The existence of evil seems inconsistent with the existence of a God who is wholly good, and can do anything.

Most religions say that God is completely good, knows everything, and is all-powerful. But the world is full of wickedness and bad things keep happening. This can only happen if And so there is no being that is completely good, knows everything, and is all powerful. And so, there is no God. Theologians and philosophers have provided various answers to this argument. They all agree that it gives useful insights into the nature of God, evil, and belief.

For most of human history God was the best explanation for the existence and nature of the physical universe. But during the last few centuries, scientists have developed solutions that are much more logical, more consistent, and better supported by evidence.

Atheists say that these explain the world so much better than the existence of God. They also say that far from God being a good explanation for the world, it's God that now requires explaining. In olden times - and still today in some traditional societies - natural phenomena that people didn't understand, such as the weather, sunrise and sunset, and so on, were seen as the work of gods or spirits.

Where we would see the weather as obeying meteorological principles, people in those days saw it as demonstrating God at work. And it was the same with all the other natural phenomena, they just showed God doing things. The Greek philosopher Thales moved things on by suggesting that the gods were actually an essential part of things, rather than external puppeteers pulling strings to make the world work.

But there was more to these ancient explanations than gods doing things in or to the world. People saw the whole universe in a religiously structured way; they had no other way to see it at that time. For the ancients, God provided the power that made the universe work, and God provided the structure within which the universe worked and human beings lived.

Ideas like that survive in modern astrology. Many people believe that their lives are in some way influenced by the movements of heavenly bodies. And the heavenly bodies concerned have names taken from mythology and religion.

And you'll find similar ideas in most popular religious thinking. Atheists were at least as knowledgeable as Christians on Christianity-related questions — roughly eight-in-ten in both groups, for example, know that Easter commemorates the resurrection of Jesus — and they were also twice as likely as Americans overall to know that the U.

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