After a year without God, Former Pastor turned Atheist Ryan Bell has created a community for those questioning their faith.
In 2014, Ryan Bell, a former pastor with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, made the decision to spend a year living as an atheist. He was promptly fired by the Azusa Pacific University, but the Friendly Atheist raised $27,000 to pick him back up and support him in his journey to finding his religious identity. Since the year, which he spent blogging about along the way, he has made some conclusions that changed his life and some that only changed aspects. He is back again, two years later, to share some interesting announcement and updates with the world. He spent his years deconstructing his own faith, changing his faith and evolving.
In a piece for Huffington Post, Bell wrote about his motivation as a religious skeptic, feeling that his “religion was getting in the way of the more pressing matters of living and loving well.” However, when he lost his religion and faith, he began to feel a deep sense of “loss and lostness.” He noted that there were hotlines, such as Recovering from Religion, and support groups, like Sunday Assemblies. He remembers the way it felt, and is pleased as punch to announce his new project: Life After God.
Ex-Pastor Now Atheist Launching New ‘Life After God'[/tweetthis]
The mission for the project is to provide a “safe, hospitable space for people to explore their doubts, recalibrate their ‘moral compass’, and create new friendships.” He said that the group will be offering coaching, weekend events, retreats and other educational moments. In addition, they are launching a podcast, Life After God. They are going to have two episodes set up, the first to offer an introduction, and the second to showcase an interview with Gretta Vosper, who is the United Church of Canada Minister and member of their Clergy Project. Vosper also serves as an advisor and consultant to the Life After God project.
My conversation with Trav Mamone explores the intersection of gender, sexuality and the loss of faith. Trav writes the Bi Any Means blog.
Posted by Ryan J. Bell on Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Former pastor #RyanBells new calling http://t.co/RJ457vbTV7 helping others: #Life after god.
#Reality & #Reason pic.twitter.com/3xDn0QHCK8
— Christianne Smith (@ChristiAnne67) September 7, 2015