Naw i already came knowing there is no god.

Yes. There have been maybe a half a dozen or so that I recall who have come back to the boards and said that we were part of the reason they deconverted.

Also, you should realize that many people who deconvert don't announce it publicly. There have been a couple of people who PM'd me to say that they weren't going to be back, but it was because they didn't need to be here anymore. They'd left religion, and just wanted to leave it behind, rather than dwell on it by debating here.

In the end, though, I don't think many of us expect public deconversions. At any given moment, there are several hundred people logged in, and only a dozen or so posting. Furthermore, every time we do something visible on theist websites, ABC, or something else like that, our hits skyrocket. Theists are definitely reading. In the end, that's what we want. We don't care if they do it in secret.

(Incidentally, one of the people I know of who's deconverted is a personal friend of mine who read many of my posts and then emailed me one day to say that seeing it all in print made our live discussions make more sense, and that he no longer believed in the spirit world or god.)

Whether this site 'converts' or 'deconverts' anyone is irrelevant.  There is a wealth of information on this site, which many of us use in daily conversations.  Even in a face to face debate, it is unlikely that the opponent's mind will be changed but the listening audience will at least have something the think about.  BGH started a thread about the movie "Thank You For Smoking" which drives this point home.

I feel this site is also as much about bringing atheists together. not just about deconverting.

 How can you not be one or the other?

And a giant blue man with a big grin on his face isn't? 

At least mine's a girl. 

 Then you're a spirtual atheist.

Hotter than Genie. And that facial expression is...well......

 Score one for pineapple.

Meh.  Details.

Did I suggest that Genie was hot???

...Pervert

xamination 2 - Pineapple 1 

Then why did you pick him?

I picked Sailor Moon because of the visualization of her pose pointing at you and yelling.

Ahhh... that's what I thought.  No for the first two - this universe is all there is, and your mind comes through it.  The third... maybe.  I can't say for sure either way right now.

Thanks for asking the question. I hope a few people come forward. The most well known deconversion we've had here was Chanman the 17 year old who ended up being the star of the Blasphemy Challenge video. We've had 2 people come back to the show after having interactions with us previously to record 1 minute segments on the fact that they left religion because of us. they're have been about 5-10 posts on this forum over time that have exclaimed they left religion as a result of this site (if anyone wants to research those and find the links, I'd be greatful... I could compile all the data in a central repository for future inquistors).

There have also been somewhere between 40 and 50 emails explainiing that our site helped them leave religion to some degree. In some cases some of these "deconversions" were simply the straw that broke the camels back. That is to say that while our site deserves partial credit for all of the people I'm mentioning, a few of them were almost there anyway. We've also gotten quite a few emails from people who claimed agnosticism before, but were ok with using the terms atheist agnostic to more accurately represent themselves.

There have also been quite a few people who become very immersed in our world. To the point that several people had made comments to the fact that they felt very alone and had nobody to relate to. This site has become their outlet and home for people they can consider a friend. This last paragraph, I'm referring more specifically to the atheists who found that our site helped them overcome hurdles they are glad to have overcome.

Lastly, I've said this before many time on the show. Often when trying to overcome your religious beliefs you run through sets of mixed emotions. From panic to shock to fear etc... it can often be embarassing to admit you were wrong for so long, and that even worse some of the people who you trusted were also very wrong. You are not going to get letters and comments from everyone we helped. In fact it is more likely that most people wont say a thing to us. We have an excessive amount of lurkers who read the data, absorb it, and move on, there is no way of telling how all of those people will be impacted over time.

For a while we tried to compile some of the more positive comments in one thread, but the project became too cumbersome as the positive comments sometimes are emailed to us at the rate of over 100 per day when you factor in myspace mail.

Here's a few from just this month (I wish I had kept emails of all the deconversions, but there have been too many to manage)

Much of my email is hidden in a hard drive I can't access right now, however the above emails were sent to us through our "letters of support" on our website. There are about 25 core members of the RRS that receive a copy of those letters whenever someone sends them to us. If anyone has the one from last month about the guy who was gonna kill himself and our site helped him overcome that, please feel free to share. (or any other of the dozens of emails you have that I've misplaced).

To date I estimate that about 200-300 people have come forward and stated that this site or one of the RRS members has helped them overcome theism. I extrapolate that data to come up with a reasonable expectation that it's likely our site is responsible for helping somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 people overcome myth. The FCC says for each person that lodges a complaint it's akin to 100 complaints (as most people are too lazy to complain). Well I think your whole world view shattering is likely to make you shrivel up a little more than laziness and believe it's more likely that for every person who tells us they deconverted on this site, it's more like 200-1,000 people who actually have.

Yeah, I can kinda understand them keeping it to themselves, or doing it through PM/e-mail.

This site has got me questioning, but I haven't been swayed yet. 

Would you find it absurd, or even abusive if a parent was still teaching their child that Santa exists, even when they were 15 or 20 years old?

It is not a matter of "deconverting" but getting the word out and letting people at least look at it.

I think your question may come out of the fear of how theists precieve us and the possible backlash from us challenging their beliefs. That would be an issue of "how" to get the facts out and not "should" we get the facts out.

While I have always been an atheist, this site has provided me with a wealth of information.  I find myself studying subjects that I never had before (mainly science).  I've also met some really great people on this forum who I correspond with on a regular.  It just feels nice to have a community like this around.

Touchy, aren't we, BGH?  I was talking about the general atheist population on this site - we was used, because "you" or "they" would be too confusing.  No need to fuss over a simple pronoun.

And, tell me somebody, what is wrong with playing both sides of the arguement? 

It is plain and simple intellectual dishonesty. You earn no respect from either side and appear untrustworthy because of your ambiguity. You appear to lack the cajones to really evaluate the issue at hand determine where you stand. Instead, you remain safely perched on the fence, right in the middle where you do not have to be bold and assert a position. Safe from the slings and arrows from either side because at any moment you can claim affiliation with side that is firing.

You have said you do not believe in god right now, but you are spiritual. I would like to inform you, if this is the case, you are actually an atheist. You may not like the label, but it is fitting. The Raelians are atheists and they believe space aliens visited earth and seeded it with life, this is irrational but it not make them any less atheistic. Your spiritualness does not mean you are not an atheist, rather it means you are a different 'type' of atheist.

Xam, if you do not hold a god belief you are an atheist.

If you do not hold a god belief but you are open to the possibility that one exists, you are an agnostic atheist. But... you are still an atheist.

You would be surprised to learn that many of the people here are agnostic atheists. We do not claim to have absolute knowledge, we admit there is a possibility god exists. When we argue strongly against a god, it is one that has been defined, i.e. the christian god. We can say for almost certain the christian god does not exist, their definition is incoherent.

You probably should read this:

http://www.rationalresponders.com/am_i_agnostic_or_atheist

BGH, I would like to discuss this further, but in a seperate thread - we've gotten way off topic.  I'll make it sometime in the next hour, and I would appreciate if you responded there.

Will do. 

I added some paragraph formatting to make it easier to read here on the forums.

The very last line is amazing.

RRS helps me in studying the phenomenon of religion.  I'm still exploring the issues of 1) the existence of any gods (and goddesses--henceforth I mean gods to be a gender neutral and number neutral term) and 2) whether it really makes any difference.

I'm trying to figure out why I care so much about a question when I know the correct answer is most likely "(e)  It cannot be determined from the information given."

Interestingly enough, it appears that according to the Rational Response Squad definition, that answer would make me an atheist.  I hold no affirmative belief in the existence of gods.

Until recently I have not ever thought of myself as an atheist.  Actually, I still wouldn't use the label "atheist" to describe myself any more than I'd use the term "a-werewolfist" or "a-unicornist" or "a-Loch Ness Monsterist."  I think of myself as a pagan.  But I have to admit that I really don't believe there are actually any gods.  I am open to the possiblilty that there might be gods, but I don't have any good reason to believe that there are.

A Christian friend tells me that the reason I don't accept the existence of gods is that I think of myself as an "intellectual," and it's unfashionable for "intellectuals" to believe in gods.  Maybe he's right.  Of course, even if he is right, that's no reason to believe that there are gods, just a reason to recognize that my logical processes, like his, may be influenced by bias. 

Pagans, of course, don't expect you to share any particular beliefs.  You can pretty much get away with being an "atheist" (at least in the Rational Responders sense) and still be a pagan. 

I'm contemplating whether I should still consider myself a pagan.  After all, nothing I find in paganism has any rational basis.  Clearly divination doesn't work (although it's fun).  Pagan gods answer prayer at about the same rate as the Abrahamic one (the rate predicted by chance).  I derive personal pleasure from candles and incense and statues of the gods, but I'm not sure that's a whole lot different from the pleasure Catholics take from the decor of their churches.

I think I've given religion more thought and consideration than I have given to other, more important areas of my life, such as how to make money.  Therefore, my analysis should be somewhat reliable.  Still, the human brain is subject to certain errors in judgment.  We give too much weight to "authority."  We are poor at evaluating risks and statistics.  We are subject to biases like the "confirmation bias," meaning that once we do reach a "conclusion," on a particular matter, we tend to notice the evidence in favor of that conclusion and disregard evidence against it.  We are subject to a bias in favor of positive beliefs about ourselves.  We create stories and try to fit everything we know into the plot of those stories.  And, as a group, human beings are subject to "magical" thinking.  We see patterns whether they are there or not.  We are subject to all kinds of errors that are given cute names like the "Lake Wobegon Effect" or the "Polyanna Principle" or the "Interviewer Illusion."  We tend to think we're more competent than we are, which explains, for example, why over 90% of college professors believe they are above average at their jobs.  Frequently training does not increase competence, it merely increases confidence.

Yet I'd like to think that there are gods.  What's more, I'm unreasonably obsessed with the idea of gods.  What is wrong with me that I spend so much of my fee time on the god question?  I'm unlikely to ever come to a conclusion on it.

One thing I've been forced to admit is that religion is entertaining.  Yes, perhaps all religion is just a branch of the entertainment industry.

Anyway, if I end up deconverting from paganism, as if I haven't already, the experiences I've had here will have contributed to the development.

Thandarr

Congratulations, Thandarr!

You have come to your conclusions on your own through studying and learning.  No one knocked on your door and demanded your attention.  No one threatened you with eternal anything.  You did this on your own.

That's very admirable.