religion, belief, coming-outI have heard anecdotes from Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett referring to current preachers who are in fact closeted atheists. I have also had the pleasure of talking to one former preacher, Dan Barker, who indicated that there were many more like him. There appear to be others as well (some have books, as it seems to be an interesting topic).
I’d like to know of any former preachers that are now avowed atheists, but in particular the most famous ones.
I don’t think the list will ever be published: Dennet has said specifically how hard it is to get the clergy to come out, even the ex-clergy. I think the reason for the list is a book to document theological lock-in. And, realistically, these people are occupationally locked-in. That’s one of Dennet’s motivations for researching this topic – I believe he has spoke before about a fund to retrain the clergy.
But, to provide one example of a local priest gone atheist, we have Edward Tarte.
Dan Barker’s one of the more prominent ones, but you might also want to check out the story of G. Vincent Runyon:
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/vincent_runyon/left_ministry.html
Charles Templeton’s ‘Farewell to God’.
His autobiography documents how, as a onetime evangelist who founded the Avenue Road Church of the Nazarene, in Toronto and later appearing on CBS TV’s ‘Look Up and Live’, in the early 1950s, later doubted his belief. His growing lack of commitment plagued him for many years before he publicly renounced his faith and became a self confessed agnostic against a tirade from the church community.
I am quite certain that Sam Kinison alluded to this in an interview not long before his death. I can't find the source, and it would be quite difficult to do so today. I distinctly remember reading it.
The context was a question that asked how Kinison, a former preacher could feel comfortable taking so many liberties in his comedy with his former institution. His reply was along the lines of "Well if there is a God, and I'm pretty sure there's not ... "
Now that I've shown my age a bit, I hope I've jogged someone's memory who might be able to edit this and provide a reference.
Not a priest, but Jonathon Edwards, the former Olympic gold medallist and presenter of religious television programmes, declared a couple of years ago that he had become an atheist.
It must be incredibly difficult to do this, when your whole self-image, social standing and financial security, not to mention relationships with family and friends, is based on maintaining the myth.
A close friend of mine is a vicar, on the General Synod, and she was texting me from there during a debate - in the end, she quoted something I’d texted her in her speech, commenting that it had come from an atheist. The first atheist to speak at General Synod? She - and several others - rather doubted it!
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