--- title: "Dan Barker" description: "Dan Barker spent 19 years as an evangelical minister before losing his faith through his own research. Now co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation." canonical: https://opendoubt.com/people/dan-barker source: html --- # Dan Barker > Dan Barker spent 19 years as an evangelical minister before losing his faith through his own research. Now co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Notable figure # Dan Barker Former Evangelical Preacher & FFRF Co-President · b. 1956 Dan Barker spent 19 years as an evangelical Christian minister and gospel songwriter. He wrote hundreds of Christian songs, led revivals, and dedicated his life to spreading the faith. Then, in 1984, his own research led him out of it. What makes Barker’s story unusual is not just that he left — but how. He didn’t experience a crisis, a trauma, or a single moment of doubt. He read himself out of his faith, working through theology, philosophy, and biblical scholarship until he could no longer honestly hold the position he had preached. He announced his atheism publicly in 1984. He is now co-president of the [Freedom From Religion Foundation](https://ffrf.org/) (with his wife, Annie Laurie Gaylor), the largest church-state separation organization in the United States. He is also a classically trained pianist and continues to perform secular music. Core positions Faith is an epistemological failure Barker argues that faith — believing without evidence — is not a virtue but a failure of critical thinking. Having spent two decades in evangelical ministry, he understands the internal logic of faith from the inside, which makes his critique particularly precise. The Bible is morally indefensible on its own terms His book Godless spends considerable time cataloguing the moral problems with the Old Testament specifically. His argument is not that the Bible is ancient and primitive — it's that it fails the moral standards it claims to establish. Deconversion is possible at any age Barker was 34 when he left the faith — after 19 years as a pastor and Christian songwriter. His story is important evidence that leaving religion is not just a young person's journey, and that intellectual honesty can win out at any life stage. Secular life is richer, not emptier A recurring theme in his work is that losing his faith was not a loss but a discovery. He found the world more interesting, not less, without God — and that ethics grounded in reason and empathy are more compelling than commandment-based morality. > I don't think I stopped believing in God. I think I stopped being afraid not to believe. ## Essential books [Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists2008His deconversion memoir — one of the most detailed ever written](https://www.amazon.com/Godless-Evangelical-Preacher-Became-Americas/dp/1569756775)[Life Driven Purpose2015A secular answer to Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life](https://www.amazon.com/Life-Driven-Purpose-Meaning-Without/dp/1634310071)[God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction2016A systematic walk through the God of the Old Testament](https://www.amazon.com/God-Most-Unpleasant-Character-Fiction/dp/1454920890) ## A sermon from a former preacher Dan Barker — Why I Became an Atheist ## Best quotes > “I have something to say to the religious leaders of the world: the supernatural is not real. You have been fooling people for thousands of years, and you should be ashamed of yourselves.” > “Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits.” > “I don't think I stopped believing in God. I think I stopped being afraid not to believe.” > “The kindest thing I can do for the people I used to preach to is to be honest with them.” > “You don't need religion to have morality. All you need is empathy.” > “I have found that the questions themselves are more interesting than any answers religion can provide.” Follow Dan Barker [Freedom From Religion Foundation](https://ffrf.org/)[YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@FreedomFromReligion) Related thinkers [ Matt Dillahunty Atheist Experience ](/people/matt-dillahunty)[ Peter Boghossian Philosopher ](/people/peter-boghossian)[ Julia Sweeney Comedian & Author ](/people/julia-sweeney) Continue exploring [ Deconversion What the journey out of religion actually looks like. ](/deconversion)[ Christopher Hitchens Another former believer — and the most combative atheist voice of his era. ](/people/christopher-hitchens)[ Religious trauma The psychological aftermath of leaving high-control religion. ](/religious-trauma)[ What is atheism? A clear introduction to what atheism actually means. ](/atheism)[ The problem of evil The problem of evil — the argument that changed Barker's mind. ](/arguments/problem-of-evil) ## Sources cited - https://ffrf.org/ - https://www.amazon.com/Godless-Evangelical-Preacher-Became-Americas/dp/1569756775 - https://www.amazon.com/Life-Driven-Purpose-Meaning-Without/dp/1634310071 - https://www.amazon.com/God-Most-Unpleasant-Character-Fiction/dp/1454920890 - https://www.youtube.com/@FreedomFromReligion --- _Canonical HTML version: https://opendoubt.com/people/dan-barker_