Network Theory of Deconversion

[Julius]

It Is said that deconversion from Christianity does not
happen in an instant, and it was this case for me. My deconversion happened over a period of 3 years and is best
explained by the “Network Theory of Deconversion” as explained in the following
short Youtube video: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12rP8ybp13s). In the video, a network diagram like that shown below is used to represent the foundations of a believer’s faith. It is then shown how a Christian can lose
one aspect (i.e., one node) of that network at a time so that his core faith is
not lost all at once, but slowly eroded until it becomes unsustainable. In otherwords, the Christians network of faith slowly degrades but doesn't fail all at once.

In my case, I had lost confidence in the power of prayer, the Creation Myth, the exclusivity of Christian Morality and the support of fellow Christians (I came to believe that fellow Christians were just as
clueless as anyone else). Four (4) of the seven nodes shown in the Network below were missing from my network of faith. I went along like this for three years until I read the Bible – actually read the thing. As I began reading, my confidence in the Bible plunged to zero in a matter of no more than 2 weeks. My network crashed: I was an atheist.

Was it the same for any of you who deconverted? And are those all the possible nodes on the Network that sustain faith - could there be more?

Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you.

[EvolutionKills]

When I read through your entire post, I was actually going to link to that YouTube video before I realized that was one of your references. Evid3nc3's deconversion story is one of the most insightful and beautifully produced series on YouTube, hands down.

(Type 'deconversion' into Google, it's the 2'nd result from the top... )

One of these days whenever I next get into a particularly nasty debate with my parents, I'm going to show them this whole series and then challenge them to do a comparative reading of the Bible. They've yet to piss me off so much that I'm willing to use this weapons grade logic bomb on them...

[Julius]

(14-01-2013 02:16 AM)EvolutionKills Wrote:  One of these days whenever I next get into a particularly nasty debate with my parents, I'm going to show them this whole series and then challenge them to do a comparative reading of the Bible. They've yet to piss me off so much that I'm willing to use this weapons grade logic bomb on them...

In the early stages of my deconversion - or pre-conversion - I doubt this tactic would have worked on me in the short run because I still relied on Prayer, Fellow Christians and the belief that Morals etc. to bolster my belief. It was only after 4 of the 7 Nodes shown ion the Diagram went offline that I was forced to turn to the Bible and was able to approach it with both a critical mind and no fellow Christians about to "explain away" all the BS. That's why reading the Bible deconverted me so quickly at that point in my life.

[Free Thought]

Evid3nc3 strikes again I see.

[Birdguy1979]

My story is a bit different. I never truly bought into it. I was always real skeptical, even from a young age. It was reading the bible that showed me that I had no reason to believe in it. What complete and total garbage. As far as your network goes, I am not coming up with anything that might be missing. I do want to bring up the idea of logical arguments. Indoctrination is used so that you don't need logic to conclude that your faith is correct. It is logical arguments that I can see slowly collapsing the network.

[Julius]

(14-01-2013 02:42 AM)Birdguy1979 Wrote:  ....Indoctrination is used so that you don't need logic to conclude that your faith is correct. It is logical arguments that I can see slowly collapsing the network.

It was that way for me until, too. The only time I relied on Logical Arguments (i.e., Aplogetics) to maintain faith was towards the end (when I was about to lose my faith) when too many of my "faith nodes" failed and I had to have an additional node to keep the faith network alive.