In this thread, Kolga suggested that it might be interesting if I were to start a thread that recounted my departure from fundamentalism, so that others could ask me questions, and perhaps share excerpts from their own “deconversion” tales.
I could probably write a book about all my experiences within the womb of Southern fundamentalist Christianity, but in the interest of readability, I shall strive to be brief here.
[Mods: If this needs to go somewhere else, feel free.]
I grew up in east Tennessee, the son of a former Baptist missionary kid (mother), and zealous adult convert (father). Both parents had graduated from William Jennings Bryan College in Dayton, TN (where the Scopes Trial was held). My mom had two sets of career missionaries in her recent family, and my folks held lay leadership positions in our church.
Speaking of church, we of course went every time the doors were open. My early schooling years (elementary grades K - 4) were at a private fundamentalist school. So the first decade of my life, I was SATURATED in fundamentalist Christianity.
Even the books I read were children’s Bible story books. I remember having a few children’s books that were published by the Institute for Creation Research. These books argued that secular science (i.e., geology and biology) was all wrong, and that “true” science proved that the literal reading of Genesis was correct. As evidence of a young earth, these kids’ books had full-color illustrations and brief write-ups on such young-earth “evidences” as the Paluxy “man-tracks” and the “plesiosaur” snagged by the Japanese fishing boat in 1977 (which turned out to be a rotting basking shark carcass, btw).
For my family and friends, the word “evolution” itself was very much like an obscenity. It just SOUNDED evil, the way my parents and teachers and pastors would say it, resonating with a sense of malice and hatred of God, America, and puppies, or something.
But I was always—even as a child—on the skeptical side. I remember arguing with my parents over certain Biblical passages, insisting, without even realizing it at the time, that I was rejecting the doctrine of plenary inspiration. I remember one time in the early 1990’s, when I was in my mid-teens, my folks thought that Jesus’ Second Coming was imminent (they thought this because of certain interpretations of current events in Europe at the time, mirrored certain prophecies in the books of Daniel and Revelation). I told them it wouldn’t happen, that they were mistaken. Sure enough, it didn’t. My skepticism served me well.
When I joined the Army at 17, still nominally Christian, for some reason I can’t describe, I didn’t want any religious denomination at all on my dog tags. I selected “No religious preference” on my paperwork, so when I got my dog tags, sure enough, there it was: NO-REL-PREF. Point is, I was pretty much always “on the outside” the community of the faithful. Other soldiers “found God” in the Army. I found the value of sleeping in on Sunday.
Fast-forward to college: the University of Tennessee, a mainstream secular institution. I took a class in astronomy, and part of the course was on planetary and solar system science. The instructor, as a routine component of the class, covered the age of the earth, and the ways that that information had been determined through rigorous science. So I became an “old-earth creationist”. My folks were NOT pleased, and we had more than one heated argument over cosmology.
But also in university, somehow—certainly ironically—I became committed to my Christianity. Really…truly. I was “on fire for the Lord”. But I still respected and believed the science I was learning (astronomical, geological, and biological), and this triggered something of an intellectual-spiritual crisis. I looked for answers in the works of Christian scholars. I found an author named Hugh Ross, a Christian astronomer who wrote several books on old-earth creationism/intelligent design. He became my hero. Around this time I also found and read a book called Darwin’s Black Box, by a biochemist named Michael Behe (most folks will recognize that title!). But Behe didn’t impress me: committed Christian though I was, non-scientist though I was, I found several of his arguments woefully unconvincing (especially his analogy comparing living systems to inanimate junk, by which he argued that naturalistic abiogenesis is impossible, based solely on mathematical probabilities).
In the early 2000’s, after college, at the university where I still work today, I came across the writings of Robert Carroll (author of The Skeptic’s Dictionary). He argued, IIRC, that theism is as groundless a belief system, ultimately as irrational (or non-rational), as astrology, or homeopathy. I wasn’t entirely convinced by his atheistic reasoning, but reading his material at skepdic.com triggered a spiritual crisis for me. Cognitive dissonance. BIG TIME.
After a heart-rending period of several months, facing a grueling crisis of identity, was when I left for good. “Came out” to my family and everything. There’s more to the story, but this is too long already.
Questions? 
