Have you ever converted someone to Atheism?`

My friend came up to me two days ago (March 25) and said that it was me that converted her to atheism. I showed her a couple of books, websites, and some of my favorites on youtube about a month ago, when she asked me about Atheism. I didn't really intend to convert her purposely, we were just casually yapping in my house about nothing and the subject came up. She thanked me too! This is the first person I ever converted!

If anyone has similar or great stories, please share.

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Permalink Reply by Eduardo on April 4, 2009 at 4:59pm
My best friend and I have always asked questions about the universe and life and this kind of important stuff since we were like 12, but since he is older than me I'm inclined to believe that he was the only influence I had to reject my parent's religion.
As we grew older we where supportive of each other's ideas but I think we became atheists by ourselves and not together, though we have always been there for each other.
Now I'm the one who who has become the more uncomfortable with religion and when we chat he seems to get influenced by my constant complaining and criticizing of irrational beliefs. And he says so: he gets into discussions with his parents and then blames me in a jokey way.
Permalink Reply by Eduardo on April 4, 2009 at 5:01pm
Oh and I've tried to convert my girlfriend but she wouldn't listen, maybe I'm approaching in the wrong way.
Permalink Reply by G.P.Plascencia on April 9, 2009 at 1:41pm
I would suggest that you should not try to convert her. Just be yourself. I guess she is an intelligent person and she will eventually realize that you don't need Jesus anymore that she needs Thor. Opportunities to discuss about religion an belief will arise all the time (it's Mexico after all :) ). But always be polite and civilized (she probably will flip from time to time). Also, be well informed.
In that example, I "converted" my (now) wife from when she was my girlfriend. I would rather say that I convinced her, through rational discoursse that religions are mostly wrong, dumb and unnecessary and that you don't need deities to live a good life. She is now more like a pantheist agnostic, and a little more skeptic.

I would also suggest for both of you to see House M.D. The House character is a good example in atheist rationalization.

House: "God talks to him?"
Chase: "It's not psychosis, he's just religious. The only medical issue that showed up on the blood work is low sodium."
House: "No, you talk to God, you're religious. God talks to you, you're psychotic."
Permalink Reply by Eduardo on April 10, 2009 at 2:37pm
Hey, actually House is her favourite TV show.
Permalink Reply by G.P.Plascencia on April 15, 2009 at 9:50am
Really? And what she says about that?
Permalink Reply by Eduardo on April 16, 2009 at 10:10pm
You know, I have no idea what she thinks about the things House says. I don't know if she ignores them or she does think about them. I don't know but I really got to ask her.
Oh, and she also watches Bones, do you know about this show? The main character, a female, is also extremely skeptic.
I believe that with these shows and my constant questioning of accepted "truths" she might star to question her believes herself.
Permalink Reply by mthoreau on April 4, 2009 at 5:34pm
I converted my girlfriend and I'm currently friends with a catholic that is having serioius doubts about his faith.

Great stories everyone.
Permalink Reply by Michael on April 5, 2009 at 10:57pm
A religious friend of mine came to realise that atheists were OK people. For a couple of weeks he was checking us out on the Internet (Googling "Famous Atheists" and such-like) but that's as far as it went. He's still a believer...
Permalink Reply by Timothy W. Brown on April 8, 2009 at 3:01pm
As a matter of fact I have. My best friend was a devote Christian, as his father was. We were both Christian at one time, however I became an atheist, and started talking to him about it.

He is a very intelligent person, so it did not take him long to 'deconvert', however it did take a lot of counseling to get the fear of hell out of his mind. Now he is a fully recognized, strong atheist - as am I. ;)

It's so beautiful to see the loss of religion in a heavily deluded mind.
Permalink Reply by Loren ɟɟןoʍ on April 17, 2009 at 12:01am
I had the pleasure of convincing my boyfriend to go the atheist way of thinking. He may have been a bit of an agnostic to begin with though. He wore a cross around his neck that admittedly bothered me though. Fortunately he is an intelligent person and a bit of a free thinker as well so this may have made it a bit easier for me. However, he read the God Delusion on my recommendation to begin with. Initially he found it uncomfortable to think differently but as he read and found out more (We read pages from Sam Harris, Hitchen's) the penny dropped and he started to see the insanity and indoctrination that religion forced on one and he put it all together in his head. He now loves watching Pat Condell videos with me and any other atheist video I can get my hands on. We went to see the movie Religulous together and that also just gave more ammunition against religion. There is no turning back for him now after being enlightened and everything just making sense to him. The fact that he has been enlightened to the truth and has even started coming out to people, has definitely cemented the relationship and my commitment to him as this is a fundamental factor for me in a relationship.
Permalink Reply by Loren ɟɟןoʍ on April 17, 2009 at 12:02am
By the way, I came from a Jewish (Reform, non orthodox) background. He was Protestant.
Permalink Reply by Tak G. on April 23, 2009 at 11:43am
Deconversion as I call it is complex... I've never been directly responsible for anyone's deconversion but I am confident that I've helped at least one person access information that led her to atheism.

As with some of the other stories here, she was already questioning and I just exposed her to answers/opinions that validated that she was not a crazy person and her questions did make sense. One of the hardest things to overcome (for me anyway) was the notion that since billions of people on earth are religious there must be something to it! How nice for her to have a friend on the subject - I was more or less on my own during my own process of letting go of superstition.

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