How does a fundamentalist lose his faith?

Question

The Book of Bart.

Bart Ehrman, Ph.D and M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary.

Current chairperson of Dept of Religious Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill;
Best-selling author, New Testament expert and perhaps a cautionary tale: the fundamentalist scholar who peered so hard into the origins of Christianity that he lost his faith altogether.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/04/AR2006030401369.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_Ehrman

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5052156

Answer 1

This is the classic story of the believer turned atheist. And believers accuse us of not believing because we don't understand. In fact, the opposite is true: We don't believe precisely because we do understand.

Answer 2

Many people who have studied religion extensively have come to the conclusion that God does not exist. Simply, the bible is not different from collections of cultural and mythological stories about creationism, prayer, Gods, miracles, societal rules to follow, explanations of natural phenomena, etc. After studying extensively the collection of the world's religions and belief systems it is hard to decide that one is right and the others are wrong. They are all right within their belief system of course, but as a universal truth are they right, do these Gods exist, and which one do we decide exists? Well, if every belief system believes it is the right one, then they must all be wrong. This is the conclusion many a philosopher and student of religion has arrived at. Faith is a choice that people make, belief is something people take without proof, it is not a universal truth, it does not exist outside of the human mind, and maybe it does, but thus far there is no physical proof to that effect.

Answer 3

That's what happens when you read the Bible closely enough, you see it's all a bunch of stories and it cannot possibly be true. The man you mentioned, Bart Ehrman, reminds me of Dan Barker. He was a Christian minister that preached for 19 years and now he's an atheist. He's written a book called "Losing Faith In Faith: From Preacher To Atheist". I haven't read it but it would probably answer your question if you are interested in reading it.

http://ffrf.org/books/lfif

Answer 4

Probably the same way I lost my faith. I was so cocky and sure about what I believed, that I dared to examine the arguments and the evidence, only to discover it was a house of cards built on smoke and mirrors.

I'm still cocky, but my position has changed.