Christianity deprives us of the ability to thrive - Sara Martin

Today I was delighted to speak with Sara Martin, a musician and fellow Youtuber. We discussed her journey growing up as a Christian, heavily exposed to Gospel messages and calls to ministry, attending a Christian college and going on mission trips, but eventually deconstructing her faith and deconverting from Christianity. Throughout our discussion, we touched on: • The general Christian goal of getting to heaven, and before that, living a life with god at the center, and fulfilling his plans for our lives. • The Christian focus on being intentional and on fire for Christ, to not live an average life for God, and to make an impact for the kingdom of god. • Struggling with self-esteem, even while knowing god loves us • The perpetual guilt of not measuring up, not praying enough, etc. • How Christianity becomes part of your identity, to the point that it is painful to disconnect from it when you eventually realize it's mythology, and deconvert. • The psychology of Christian ideas. • The ways that Christian college and missions trips can lead to deconversion, as they create disillusionment over the Christian worldview’s poor answers to life’s questions. • The dynamic of Christians convincing themselves that they are sensing God's strength in situations that were really difficult, that god’s work was evident in their lives ("that was a god thing"), and how that causes Christians to look for “god moments,” and “god signs,” such as seeing god in rainbows, special cloud formations, life situations. • How Christians assure themselves that they feel their god's peace and presence. • How Christians think that their god is opening doors, but how that perspective falls apart badly as life situations don’t work out well at all. • How it "wears you out" to live with the cognitive dissonance of Christianity, and how critical it is to prioritize our own mental well-being over that cognitive dissonance. • Walking through deconstruction alone, not having safe places to talk about it and to ask honest questions about faith. • The guilt and fear people grapple with over losing their faith, not wanting to be a heretic. • How Christian faith falls apart. • What it’s like to finally allowing ourselves to admit Christianity’s not real, to go "over the edge" and admit you no longer believe. • Grappling with the idea that god has a plan for people's lives, even in contexts where entire generations faced genocide and extreme poverty. • The ways that the purity culture shames people and drowns them in legalism and guilt. • The unhealthiness of the Christian view of sexuality, the dangers of the ultra-modesty culture, how the desire for sexual pleasure is normal and appropriate, and how sex before marriage is not “sinful.” • How Christianity deprives us of the ability to thrive. • The hypocritical Christian message of god loves us, he hates us, and thus “I love myself, I hate myself.” • Giving ourselves the right to say when something sounds wrong and no longer accepting pat answers. • Pursuing the truth, wherever it leads us. • The importance of living an authentic life. • The final steps of deconversion. • Walking away from Christianity and our "relationship" with Jesus. • How Christianity is about blood magic and scapegoating. • Why it makes no sense that "the soul that sins must die" versus just being forgiven. • How bizarre the Bible is in light of its messages of genocide, slavery, misogyny, the psychopathic deity character, etc. • How deconversion brings more peace than being a Christian. • After deconversion, being able for the first time to see people for who they really are. Thanks to Sara for sharing her story here today, and in more detail on her channel. I look forward to continuing the discussion in the future. ______________________________________ Sara's website: https://www.sara-martin.com/deconstruction-case-study/ Sara's Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC49ikLIIIwWj74BySg9M8OA/featured Sara's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sara_martin24/ Sara's latest musical work: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/saramartin/human Mentioned in our interview: Bill Zuersher - Seeing Through Christianity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AdPoHDebjU ______________________________________ Your support for my channel, Harmonic Atheist, is very appreciated. https://www.patreon.com/harmonicatheist The more support I receive, the sooner I can do this full time! --Tim