{"id":10454,"date":"2012-11-14T04:49:07","date_gmt":"2012-11-14T08:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=10454"},"modified":"2012-11-12T15:04:29","modified_gmt":"2012-11-12T19:04:29","slug":"how-dan-fincke-deconverted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/11\/how-dan-fincke-deconverted.html","title":{"rendered":"How Dan Fincke Deconverted"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Dan Fincke of Camels with Hammers has been writing an ongoing series about his deconversion from evangelical Christianity to atheism. While it\u2019s long, it\u2019s quite good, because Dan takes the time to really analyze what challenged his faith, how he fought to keep it, and how and why he eventually found he could not hold onto it.\u00a0Dan explains why he writes about his deconversion as follows<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

As with other evangelicals, my story of deconversion is in part about proving the sincerity of my unbelief. I aim to make clear to Christians that I was one of them, that all my life was willingly committed to their God and that all my emotions were on the side of their God when my intellect was dissuaded against my will. I was not, as much as they want to assume, looking to leave Christianity, biased against Christianity, unable or unwilling to dutifully follow the rules of Christianity, disposed against the God of Christianity, unfamiliar with the most sophisticated philosophical or theological versions of Christianity, or unfamiliar with how how wonderful Christians or Christian community could be. I had been there, done that, and despite wanting nothing more than to believe, I had found that I could no longer believe\u2013either rationally or ethically. The best arguments for the faith had failed. The best arguments against it were overwhelming. And as a matter of intellectual and moral conscience, I could no longer believe fantastic claims that had the preponderance of rational evidence stacked overwhelmingly against them. I deconverted against my will.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What\u2019s most interesting about Dan\u2019s story, I think, is just how devout and zealous he was as a child, teen, and young adult. He even created and ran a Christian newspaper in his public school at one point, and at another point he worked as a counselor at a Christian summer camp. He also went to an evangelical college, which is where his faith began to fall apart.<\/p>\n

For more of Dan\u2019s story, take a look at the links below. They can either be read separately or in order as a continuing story. If you don\u2019t have time now, you can always bookmark this page and come back to it.<\/p>\n

Before I Deconverted:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before I Deconverted: My Christian Childhood<\/a><\/p>\n

Before I Deconverted: Ministers As Powerful Role Models<\/a><\/p>\n

My Fundamentalist Preacher Brother, His Kids, And Me (And \u201cWhat To Do About One\u2019s Religiously Raised Nieces and Nephews\u201d)<\/a><\/p>\n

Before I Deconverted: I Was A Teenage Christian Contrarian<\/a><\/p>\n

Before I Deconverted, I Already Believed in Equality Between the Sexes<\/a><\/p>\n

Love Virginity<\/a><\/p>\n

Before I Deconverted: I Dabbled with Calvinism in College (Everyone Was Doing It)<\/a><\/p>\n

How Evangelicals Can Be Very Hurtful Without Being Very Hateful<\/a><\/p>\n

Before I Deconverted: My Grandfather\u2019s Contempt<\/a><\/p>\n

How I Deconverted:<\/strong><\/p>\n

How I Deconverted, It Started With Humean Skepticism<\/a><\/p>\n

How I Deconverted, I Became A Christian Relativist<\/a><\/p>\n

How I Deconverted: December 8, 1997<\/a><\/p>\n

How I Deconverted: I Made A Kierkegaardian Leap of Faith<\/a><\/p>\n

How I Deconverted: My Closest, and Seemingly \u201cHoliest\u201d, Friend Came Out As Gay<\/a><\/p>\n

How I Deconverted: My Closeted Best Friend Became A Nihilist and Turned Suicidal<\/a><\/p>\n

How I Deconverted: Nietzsche Caused A Gestalt Shift For Me (But Didn\u2019t Inspire \u201cFaith\u201d)<\/a><\/p>\n

As I Deconverted: I Spent A Summer As A Christian Camp Counselor Fighting Back Doubts<\/a><\/p>\n

How I Deconverted: I Ultimately Failed to Find Reality In Abstractions<\/a><\/p>\n

A Postmortem on my Deconversion: Was it that I just didn\u2019t love Jesus enough?<\/a><\/p>\n

When I Deconverted:<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I Deconverted: I Was Reading Nietzsche\u2019s \u201cAnti-Christ\u201d, Section 50<\/a><\/p>\n

When I Deconverted: I Had Been Devout And Was Surrounded By The Devout<\/a><\/p>\n

When I Deconverted: Some People Felt Betrayed<\/a><\/p>\n

When I Deconverted: My Closest Christian Philosopher Friends Remained My Closest Philosophical Brothers<\/a><\/p>\n

When I Deconverted: I Was Not Alone<\/a><\/p>\n

When I Deconverted: Some Anger Built Up<\/a><\/p>\n

When I Deconverted: I Sure Could Have Used The Secular Student Alliance<\/a><\/p>\n

The Philosophical Key To My Deconversion:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apostasy As A Religious Act (Or \u201cWhy A Camel Hammers the Idols of Faith\u201d)<\/a><\/p>\n

After I Deconverted:<\/strong><\/p>\n

After I Deconverted: I Was A Radical Skeptic, Irrationalist, And Nihilist\u2014But Felt Liberated<\/a><\/p>\n

After My Deconversion: I Refuse to Let Christians Judge Me<\/a><\/p>\n

After My Deconversion: My Nietzschean Lion Stage of Liberating Indignant Rage<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Dan Fincke of Camels with Hammers has been writing an ongoing series about his deconversion from evangelical Christianity to atheism. While it’s long, it’s quite good, because Dan takes the time to really analyze what challenged his faith, how he fought to keep it, and how and why he eventually found he could not hold onto it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Dan Fincke Deconverted<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dan Fincke of Camels with Hammers has been writing an ongoing series about his deconversion from evangelical Christianity to atheism. 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