Graceful Atheist Podcast

This week's guest is Jennifer Michael Hecht, bestselling author of Doubt: a History plus many other works. Her latest book, The Wonder Paradox: Embracing the Weirdness of Existence and the Poetry of Our Lives comes out this week!

Jennifer is a poet and historian and in this interview, she makes a solid case for the important place that poetry—and other art forms—can have in our lives. "It's got to be a poet who says, 'This virtue still matters,' because we're at a moment where we don't even know what to do with things that are not fairy tales but also not physics."

This is a great conversation that you won't want to miss!

Links

The Wonder Paradox: Embracing the Weirdness of Existence and the Poetry of Our Lives
https://amzn.to/3SPAfCw

Website
http://www.jennifermichaelhecht.com/

Previous appearance on the podcast
https://gracefulatheist.com/2019/05/16/jennifer-michael-hecht-doubt-a-history/

Interact

For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes
https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/03/05/jennifer-michael-hecht-the-wonder-paradox/

Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion

Support the podcast on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist

Secular Grace
https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/

Deconversion
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/

Deconstruction
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/

Attribution

"Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
https://makaihbeats.net/


Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week's guest is Stacie, the creative mind behind the @apostacie on Instagram and the co-host of @skeptichaven on Youtube.

Stacie grew up in charismatic churches, believing what she learned about and experienced at church was normal—from speaking in tongues to full-on demonic oppression. It wasn't until Stacie was an adult that she began to seriously question her upbringing. After watching a Reformed-Christian documentary about the Charismatic church, the questions started coming.

"I made the promise to myself: If I had questions, I was going to find the answers to them."

Now, she uses her online platforms to reach both atheists and doubting religious folks. Her compassionate wisdom is helping many of people.

Links

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/apostacie/

Skeptic Haven
https://www.youtube.com/c/SkepticHaven

Interact

For quotes, recommendations, transcripts and more see the full episode show notes
https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/02/26/stacie-apostacie/

Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion

Support the podcast on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist

Secular Grace
https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/

Deconversion
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/

Deconstruction
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/

Attribution

"Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
https://makaihbeats.net/


Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week's guest is Anne. Anne grew up in an English family whose Christian history goes back generations. As a young child, Anne and her twin took their beliefs seriously, even the damaging ones.

Her parents' divorce shook her up. Her family had been "that Christian family," and it felt like her parents had become strangers. Still, she clung to her faith throughout her teens and twenties.

Anne married young, meeting an American missionary while in Scotland, but it seemed her partner wasn't as devout as she'd hoped. His was on his own journey through deconstruction but she didn't want to see it.

In her thirties, Anne began to acknowledge the questions and psychological distress she'd had for years. "It's almost like this pressure had been building and building and building and finally it broke through, and I just thought, What if it's not real? I had not allowed myself to ask that question."

It took a little googling, excellent therapy and other people's deconstruction stories for Anne to see that she no longer believed. It's been freeing for her to see the world as it really is. No more "magical thinking."

She and her partner are asking whole new questions, and it's growing them and changing them in ways they never could have imagined.

Interact

For quotes, recommendations and more see the full episode show notes
https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/02/19/anne-so-i-persisted/

You are not broken, you are human
https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/12/06/you-are-not-broken-you-are-human/

Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion

Support the podcast on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist

Secular Grace
https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/

Deconversion
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/

Deconstruction
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/

Attribution

"Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
https://makaihbeats.net/

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week's guest is Audrey. Audrey spent her childhood and adolescence deep in American Christianity.

In college, she took a course in "biblical perspectives," and she had many questions. She would shelve the cognitive dissonance for years, though, pretending that everything was fine.

After years of experiencing church from the inside and working around more "secular" people, the uncertainty could no longer stay buried. "Something just wasn't right."

Audrey is an atheist now, but deconversion is fresh. The past guilt and shame still come up at times. She's reconnecting with her body and mind, though, and loving the woman she is—the woman she's always been.

"It's so incredible how once I stepped away from christianity, how I was able to gain a better understanding of how to actually take care of myself."

"All I wanted to do was be a Woman of God. I had my future planned out: I was going to find a husband at college, be the perfect godly woman, and he was going to be the man that was going to lead me in Christ."


Interact

For quotes, recommendations and more see the full episode show notes
https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/02/12/audrey-deconversion-of-an-american-christian/

Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion

Support the podcast on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist

Secular Grace
https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/

Deconversion
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/

Deconstruction
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/

Attribution

"Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
https://makaihbeats.net/


Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week's guest is Taylor. Taylor grew up in a small church in a small town, surrounded by Christianity. She had family devotions at home and a private-Christian-academy curricula at school.
By twenty-one, however, she moved out and stopped attending church completely. Her "personal relationship with Jesus" was more important than church-going.

While watching a loved one live with cancer and then face death, Taylor's faith gave her hope and meaning, until it couldn't. Depressive episodes came for a while and Taylor knew she needed to get mentally healthy.

Once her head was "out of the fog," and she began reading the Bible again, she was shocked at what she read. It had been there all along, but now she could see. "[People said,] 'Well you just need to dig deeper in the Bible.' It had the complete opposite effect."

Now Taylor has let go of many childhood beliefs. She doesn't have all the answers. but she has peace—a peace that hasn't come from supernatural help but from doing her own inner work. She is her own savior, no one else.

Links

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/skeptical_heretic/

Interact

For quotes, recommendations and more see the full episode show notes
https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/02/05/taylor-yoder-in-the-trenches-of-deconstruction-and-deconversion/

Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion

Support the podcast on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist

Secular Grace
https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/

Deconversion
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/

Deconstruction
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/

Attribution

"Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
https://makaihbeats.net/


Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week's guest is Rachel Hunt. Rachel is both the Support Group Director and an Ambassador for Recovering From Religion.

From her RFR bio, "Rachel is a motorcycle-riding ballroom dance teacher from rural Texas. Married with two adult children, Rachel has a strong interest in psychology, philosophy, and communication, in addition to the creative arts and home improvement. She was raised in Christian Science but drifted off as a teenager. She explored Scientology, Law of Attraction, and a variety of Protestant churches before settling comfortably into atheism."

Rachel shares her personal story and how Recovering from Religion is serving people all over the world.

Links

24/7 RfR hotline: 84-I-Doubt-It (844-368-2848 )
https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/#rfr-welcome

Recovering From Relgion
https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/

Secular Therapy Project
https://www.seculartherapy.org/

Interact

For quotes, recommendations and more see the full episode show notes
https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/01/22/rachel-hunt-recovering-from-religion/

Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion

Support the podcast on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist

Secular Grace
https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/

Deconversion
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/

Deconstruction
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/

Attribution

"Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
https://makaihbeats.net/


Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week's guests are Brian and Troy of the podcast, I was a Teenage Fundamentalist. They interviewed David at the end of 2022, and now it's our turn to hear from them.


Brian and Troy "used to be loyal Christians megachurch leaders. They're not anymore." Their parallel stories are fascinating, as we are given a glimpse into their past lives and the Pentecostal movement in Australia.


Today, Brian and Troy's "honest and often hilarious podcast peeks behind the curtain at the weird, the worrying and the sometimes traumatic world of Evangelicals and Pentecostals." This is a great episode that you won't want to miss!


Links

Website
https://www.iwasateenagefundamentalist.com/


I Was A Teenage Fundamentalist podcast
https://pod.link/1558606464


Twitter
https://twitter.com/WasTeenage


Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/TeenageFundamentalist


Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3188989997871128


Link Tree
https://linktr.ee/iwatf


YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs0jrFsxPsg7rGNfgqzAGug


IWATF interviews David from the Graceful Atheist Podcast
https://pod.link/1558606464/episode/f8067a71cf74f38205420663954fceaf


Interact

For quotes, recommendations and more see the full episode show notes https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/01/15/troy-and-brian-iwatf/



Attribution
"Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats



Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week's guest is Evan Clark. Evan is the Executive Director of Atheists United. Evan grew up in a partially religious home, but at six years old, the idea of a god didn't make sense to him.

He attended a Christian liberal arts college and was able to start its first atheist group. Since then, he's gone on to create many humanist communities.

In this episode, Evan explains why atheist spaces in the US differ from spaces in other more progressive countries, why community is not the only thing people need, and he shares some of Atheists United's upcoming projects.

Links

Atheists United
https://www.atheistsunited.org/

Atheists United Studios Podcast Network
https://www.atheistsunited.org/au-studios

Interact

For quotes, recommendations and more see the full episode show notes
https://gracefulatheist.com/2023/01/08/evan-clark-atheists-united/

Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion

Support the podcast on Patreon
https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist

Secular Grace
https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/

Deconversion
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/

Deconstruction
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/

Attribution

"Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
https://makaihbeats.net/

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Arline guest hosts to ask David anything. David tells his deconversion story. He talks about the beginning of the Deconversion Anonymous FB group. David goes deep on what Secular Grace is and what it means to him. Links Deconversion
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/Secular Grace
https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/Why I am a Humanist
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/11/18/why-i-am-a-humanist/ Interact For quotes, recommendations and more see the full episode show notes
https://gracefulatheist.com/2022/12/18/ask-me-anything-2022/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast onPatreon
https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheist Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
https://makaihbeats.net/

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

AMA? Try AAA. Ask Arline Anything. This week's guest is your community manager, Arline. Arline tells us what she has learned from managing the community and interviewing guests. She explains how her views have changed on Christianity and fundamentalism after deconversion. She let's us know what makes her mad and what gives her hope. She reveals her love language(s). Join me in thanking Arline for all the work she does for the community and the podcast. Let her know she is appreciated. Interact For quotes, recommendations and more see the full episode show notes
https://gracefulatheist.com/2022/12/11/ask-arline-anything-2022/ Join the Deconversion Anonymous Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/deconversion Support the podcast onPatreon
https://www.patreon.com/gracefulatheistSecular Grace
https://gracefulatheist.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/Deconversion
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/Deconstruction
https://gracefulatheist.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#deconstruction/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
https://makaihbeats.net/

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy