How long did it take for you to deconvert? What made you change your mind?

[Chad32]

Not that long, almost instantly. I was in church (13 yrs old) and we were having a teen group discussion with the youth pastor. The subject came around to evidence that god and jesus existed, that the bible was true. We'd say what about this, what about that........, he'd respond with a text book answer (it's in the bible-the bible was written by god-therefore god and jesus exist. He might have thrown in some extras like dead sea scrolls, shroud of turin, I don't recall, that was 45 yrs ago). With continued questioning he finally cracked and stated the relentless questioning was satan working in us and we just had to believe to be saved and then stormed out.

Ding, ding, ding! We have a deconversion, jesus and god and the holy goat go down for the count. It was a third round, holy trinity knockout!

This is one thing that bugs me. Truth is something that holds up to scrutiny. Truth does not fear questioning. When someone tells you something is so, and then makes the act of questioning a major crime or insult to it, that's a red flag. Whether it's the devil or not, if an idea doesn't hold up well to scrutiny, it isn't worth keeping.

The bible talks about people who build their house on a rock, as oppose to people who build their house on sand. If you don't have a good foundation for a belief, it's not going to hold up. If you don't have a good reason for your faith, you're going to lose it.