From Pastor to Atheist

My interest in atheism has increased since I left the Lutheran ministry. I had considered it prior but always rejected it as an option for life. Once freed from the theological circle of thinking, atheism became my way of life.

I approach atheism from the point of view of religion and existential meaning, not from a scientific view. I come from the inside of organized religion. I know its ins and outs, its restrictive thinking and its limited view of life and eternal life. I was caught up in the emotional dedication to the Christian God and his way of salvation. I saw first hand how a supposed holy, infallible book distorts history. How an organization decides what is truth and what is heresy. How an organization restricts the way to salvation. How an organization encourages fear of hell so it can control behavior.

Religions and their gods have had a dominant role in history, in wars, in executions, in enslavement, in terror, in control of science and in disdain for free thinking. The history of religions is hardly exemplary.

In this book I hope to expose the ways of the gods for what they are. And once they are exposed, rejection of them is an open option.


I hope to be able to add to the conversation and truth about atheism by delineating another way of thinking and viewing life and eternal life.