Although my deconstruction is an ever going thing, these were by far the best 4 during my transition.

Sam Harris (how to think about what religion is in a broader sense, its implications on ethics, humanity, education, discourse, meaning, purpose) all in an easy to understand calm demeanor. Has really good books.)

Matt Dillahunty (addressing all the apologist arguments, explaining the holes in all the different religious defenses, debating religious talking points from all the pastors and theists he debated in sometimes a hostile way but helped me spot logical fallacies in typical religious talking points.)

Dan Barker (was a former preacher and pastor so he has strong Bible knowledge and knowledge of many verses and the greater context they were spoken in. Has few really good books as well.)

Christopher Hitchens (sometimes hard to follow everything because how advanced his language choice was, but always had brilliant points and witty challenges to his opponents)

  • Bart Erhman is a New Testament scholar and doesn't try to deconvert people, but he doesn't hide that he's an atheist either.

    parent

  • None. I lurked Reddit and read other people's experiences. I advanced my deconstruction by googling about my own issues, or psychology things in general ("how to know if I had a bad childhood"). I learned more from relating to other people's experiences of feeling trapped, judged, discontent, than from listening to atheist arguments or counter apologetics.

    parent

    I hated going to church and listening to old men talk at me. That has not changed in my post-evangelicalism. Peer to peer is where it's at.

    parent root

  • Genetically Modified Skeptic & the Antibot (his wife), Alex O’Connor, Holy Koolaid, Fundie Fridays, Belief It or Not, Forrest Valkai, and The Thinking Atheist all come to mind. I listened to a bit of the “Four Horsemen” here and there too.

    parent

    Genetically modified skeptic & the antibot are the only ones I still watch. Love those two

    parent root

  • Dan McClellan. That guy has been the best thing for getting rid of the dogmas that the Christians I know use to scare me, and he's motivated me to think more like him.

    In fact, I plan to study the Hebrew Bible someday to follow his example.

    parent

    McClellan is awesome for sure. To be honest I can't quite wrap my head around how he can be a Mormon, but given he's doing a lot of good it's not my place to judge.

    parent root

    I second this. I can’t believe I forgot to add him to my list. I discovered him later in my deconversion.

    parent root

  • JezebelVibes, NonStampCollector, Bart Ehrman, Alex O’Connor, Paulogia, Genetically Modified Skeptic, Rationality Rules, DarkMatter2525, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins

    parent

  • I read God is not Great by Hitchens- hugely influential in me seeing a different perspective on religion.

    parent

  • Favorites during deconstruction were Paulogia and Genetically Modified Skeptic. Hearing former Christians talk about that stuff while still maintaining some deference to those in the faith made it easier to listen to.

    parent

  • Dan Linford, Jack Angstreich, Alex Malpass

    There were others, but these are the first to come to mind.

    I remember the paper that finally made it click for me was Dan Linford’s paper on revelation.

    parent

  • Michael Runyan, of Kyroot fame, was my big awakening moment way back when it was only a few hundred reasons long. I remember spending a night pouring over that list a decade ago. Admittedly, I was never particularly devout, but it shattered my remaining faith right then and there, and that was that.

    I did get into following a few other channels years later, but more out of curiosity than active deconstruction. Youtubers like Gutsick Gibbon and Aron Ra for their breakdowns of creationist arguments, The Friendly Atheist and Genetically Modified Skeptic for more general debunks, and Darkmatter2525 for the comedic cartoon depictions.

    parent

  • Well, back then it was probably Sam Harris…logicked and AronRa on youtube, and a variety of web links with info that I no longer have. But I particularly liked the couple websites that tore Christianity apart from a Jewish point of view, it really drove home the fact that the early Christians didn’t even know the prophecies they were alleging Jesus fulfilled and were just making up shit as the they went along.

    parent

  • Penn Jillette and Christopher Hitchens. I saw a short video from P&Ts Bullshit on the Bible, a few videos later and a coupla books, I was an athiest.

    parent

  • TheraminTrees planted the first serious doubts that festered for several years until I deconverted, then Steve Shives pushed me over the edge into full atheism with his "an atheist reads" videos. Also DarkMatter2525, Mindshift, and Jezebel Vibes have all been excellent

    parent

    TheraminTrees is really good, forgot about that one.

    parent root

  • My deconstruction was almost 20 years ago. The first time I heard someone self-identify as Atheist was Penn from Penn And Teller: Bullshit. That show had some helpful arguments against the religion and creationism. From there, I read several books and saw several other videos disproving the religion and helping make sense of the world without religion. 

    parent

  • Have to mention Dawkins as well. And Tracy Harris, former Atheist experience host. She always had a really good way of explaining things and finding logic-holes

    parent

  • Dan McClellan, Bart Ehrman

    parent

  • Hitchens had such poetry to his delivery.

    Outside of that, I didn't really watch that many

    parent

  • Sam Harris for me… and his Waking Up app too. 🫶🏻😀

    parent
  • parent

  • Lots of creators on TikTok. I feel like everyone in real life is just not on my wavelength so I really needed that community that I found. Also just Reddit

    parent

  • Pointlessratrace on YouTube tbh

    parent

  • Aron Ra. I also liked Richard Dawkins but I like his work but not him as a person.

    parent

  • A blog called the wise sloth

    parent

  • I was already out by the the time deconstructionist YouTubers with hundreds of thousands of followers took to the stage, but I really enjoy listening to Alyssa Grenfell. She's ex-Mormon so some stuff will be different, but a lot of stuff will be the same, just with a coffee-free coat of paint over it.

    Also, reading the Reddit comments from fundies trying to argue against them is good for a laugh and makes me glad I'm not like them.

    parent

  • Mindshift Brandon, Paulogia, Seth Andrews, and Mr. Deity are my tops. 

    parent

  • Oldies but goodies: Bertrand Russell, Clarence Darrow, Robert Ingersoll, and Lucretius.

    parent

  • Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark was and is hugely important to me.

    parent