The Web site above contains some essays about life as an ex-Christian. I've never written down the complete story of how I deconverted, but plan to do so soon.

I was raised fundamentalist, but grew progressively more liberal in my beliefs as I grew up. Once I got to college and started to live my life, I came to realize that the "evils of the world" I'd heard so much about weren't quite so evil. And that all the other religious groups I'd heard were demonic were actually more civilized than what I'd grown up around.

I deconverted during a period of intense depression brought on by affairs of the heart. Prayer didn't work for me; a prescribed antidepressant did. Once I realized that nothing I'd attributed to God needed such an explanation, it was easy to leave the faith. I'd already left the fear of hell long before.

I attend a Unitarian Universalist church from time to time to meet other free thinkers, but I'm an atheist and a materialist. There *could* be a God, but we'll never know for certain, and it doesn't really matter. My Buddhism is philosophical in nature, not religious -- I don't believe in reincarnation and such, but I find meditating helps to clear my mind of the clutter.

Life looks much better on this side of Christianity; the only things I have to fear are things I could get myself into. And thus, things I can get myself out of.

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