Aron Ra was a boy who believed in God but never in the Bible. He lost the Bible at twelve, God at nineteen, when a friend told him to keep telling himself it was Jesus until he believed it, and the paranormal in his twenties. He learned the word "atheist" only years later. He has spent his public life defending the teaching of evolution to other people's children rather than arguing about God, a stance he kept through the atheist movement, a Senate run and The Satanic Temple.
The belief timeline
- Faith (childhood to c. 1981) — Told by family and babysitters that God was "a conclusively proven scientific fact"; believed in God and, until twelve, in hell, but never in the Bible as literal truth [9][13]
- First crack (c. 1970 (age 8) to 1974-75 (age 12)) — Genesis 2-3 and a dinosaur book at eight; at twelve he throws the Bible across the room and prays that God justify himself or lose him [8][9][12]
- Doubt (the break) (c. 1981 (age 19)) — After a "reborn" afternoon, the friend's "just keep telling yourself it's Jesus until you believe it"; a few days (or, in another telling, a few hours) of deliberation before he decided he did not believe in God [16][17]
- Detour (1980s) — Neopagan occultism and psionics; realises he is manufacturing the experiences for others and himself [18][20]
- Declaration (c. 1998-99; Nov 2007) — Learns the word "atheist" and becomes an online activist shortly before Y2K; first Foundational Falsehoods video, 11 Nov 2007 [22][23][26]
- Revision (15 Feb 2022) — Joins The Satanic Temple ("secular humanism dressed up for Halloween") and announces it, saying he is still an atheist; separately, from 2016 he takes up feminism and social-justice arguments within atheism [35][43][44]
Notes to the timeline (14)
- [9] At eight "I still believed in God, but I never believed in the Bible, not literally"; elsewhere: "until that time I had always believed in God but I never believed in the Bible" — AronRa, "Why I make Phylogeny Videos" (YouTube, uploaded 2026-10-13), t. 0:04:12-0:04:16; AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies" (YouTube, uploaded 2022-02-15; his talk at The Satanic Temple's first convention, Scottsdale), t. 0:07:20.
- [13] He says the prayer "was answered" in that he found "endless reasons to discount the Bible as man-made mythology"; yet "I still believed in God and I still considered myself a Christian" — AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:10:42-0:10:55.
- [8] His mother's church held that children are not indoctrinated until the "age of reason," set at eight; on his eighth birthday (computed: 15 Oct 1970) his mother "came in with a Bible saying that it is the absolute truth"; on first reading Genesis 2 and 3 he told the family it is not literally true — AronRa, "Why I make Phylogeny Videos", t. 0:03:24-0:04:10.
- [12] At twelve he tried to read the Bible, "didn't even make it out of Genesis before I threw it across the room in disgust," and prayed that God justify "all this evil and horror" or "show how the Bible got him all wrong"; "if he did neither, then he could not have my soul"; he still believed in hell; in 1974 (age twelve) he remarked that his father's rooster walked like a Tyrannosaurus and says his father, in a bleeped-out remark, dismissed dinosaurs: "My dad didn't believe dinosaurs ever even existed" — AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:09:03-0:10:01; AronRa, "Why I make Phylogeny Videos", t. 0:06:08-0:06:30.
- [16] At nineteen he had a "reborn" experience with a friend, now "a fundamentalist minister" (later "a Southern Baptist preacher and a principal of a Christian school"), felt "an overwhelming dizzying kind of euphoria," asked how he could know it was real and not "a trick of the mind"; the friend "grabbed me by both shoulders... and said just keep telling yourself it's Jesus until you believe it" — AronRa, "A brief explanation of my deconversion" (YouTube, uploaded 2015-11-20; a clip from the Christian programme "The Place" with Dr Michael Jones, New Covenant Group), t. 0:01:44-0:02:51; AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:11:23-0:12:15; "Evangelical Talks With Atheist Aron Ra About The Book of Mormon & Religion," Mormon Book Reviews, host Steven Pynakker (YouTube, 2022-10-21), t. 0:54:41-0:55:21.
- [17] He calls that the "most dishonest thing I'd ever heard" and "the absolute destruction of religious belief for me"; "he deconverted me faster than he converted me"; he decided he no longer believed in God after "a few hours of reflection" (SatanCon) or "a few days of deliberation" (2022 interview) — AronRa, "A brief explanation of my deconversion", t. 0:02:53-0:03:16; AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:12:36-0:12:52; "Evangelical Talks With Atheist Aron Ra…", t. 0:55:39-0:55:48. Accounts differ; see the disputed points.
- [18] He then lived as a neopagan occultist, practising transcendental meditation to find "direct experience"; he believed he saw spectral figures and travelled astrally and was convinced of psionics by 1970s "science documentary" television; his belief in the paranormal outlasted his belief in God — AronRa, "A brief explanation of my deconversion", t. 0:03:16-0:06:05; "Is Faith Dishonest? A Conversation with Atheist Aron Ra," Apologetics Academy (YouTube, session of 2016-05-14, uploaded 2016-05-23), t. 0:01:44-0:03:30; AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:15:00-0:15:25.
- [20] He found he could "convince anybody to see or hear or experience anything they already believe" in the early 1980s, using music, incense and expectation; when he saw he was "manufacturing an illusion in my own mind and then presenting it to other people as if it was real... it all collapsed"; two old companions he later found online, both now rationalists, did not remember the shared "experiences"; it "took decades" to accept they had not happened — AronRa, "A brief explanation of my deconversion", t. 0:04:47-0:09:09.
- [22] He says he "was an atheist for 15 years before I found out that the word only meant someone who does not believe in God," that the word's real meaning embarrassed him, and that "now I have a belief that there is no God. I eventually came to that conclusion" (computed: about 1996-97 from a c. 1981 break; he gives no year) — AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:13:31-0:13:49; AronRa, "First Annual Atheist Day with Aron Ra" (YouTube, uploaded 2019-03-26; speech of 23 March 2019 at the Texas State Capitol), t. 0:05:14-0:05:25.
- [23] He says he became an atheist activist "shortly before Y2K," defending science against creationism "on [the internet] and elsewhere" (caption garbled); before that he held a job that gave him unlimited overtime in front of a computer and read scriptures and took part in discussion groups with "theologians and scientists" — AronRa, "First Annual Atheist Day with Aron Ra", t. 0:00:00-0:00:12; "Evangelical Talks With Atheist Aron Ra…", t. 0:01:42-0:02:20; "Creation Vs Evolution | Aron Ra Vs Dr McLeroy | Podcast," Modern-Day Debate (YouTube, 2020-01-19; debate in Dallas), t. 0:17:15-0:17:40.
- [26] The first "Foundational Falsehood of Creationism" video was uploaded 11 November 2007, the second on 24 November 2007, the seventh on 27 February 2008 (YouTube watch-page upload dates; the channel's earliest videos not checked) — AronRa, "1st Foundational Falsehood of Creationism" (YouTube, 2007-11-11; description names the script at a Homestead page, not retrieved); YouTube watch pages KnJX68ELbAY, ZFrkjEgUDZA, g8Q2Db17v5U.
- [35] In a 2016 interview (published 18 May 2016) he said his Mormon upbringing, once the family left Mormon-dominated areas, showed him "the bigotry of different Christian denominations against each other," which led him to compare denominations and then religions and conclude that all rest on "faith-based assertions of what is essentially magic"; he calls himself a feminist and says he learnt of his own privilege at the Secular Social Justice Conference at Rice University and was criticised by other atheists — Sincere Kirabo, "YouTube Atheists and Battling Online SJW Haters: An Interview with Aron Ra," The Humanist, 18 May 2016 (interview, his answers).
- [43] On 15 February 2022 he spoke at The Satanic Temple's first convention (Scottsdale): "this is my coming out as satanist... I only recently joined the Satanic Temple"; he says he held off because "for me to be satanist was too obvious" and because he had been accused of devil worship since his teens — AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:00:43-0:02:00, 0:02:38-0:03:00; Video descriptions for the items above (watch-page text); Wikipedia, "Aron Ra", revision 1355524897 (22 May 2026). Wikitext saved in research/texts/wikipedia-aron-ra.wikitext. Used as a map: birth, name, the SBOE and tour citations, the Satanist label, the ASU degree, the books.
- [44] Why he joined, in his own telling: it is "basically secular humanism dressed up for Halloween"; he respects its seven tenets over the Ten Commandments; its members were "the only heroes" in the reproductive-rights fight; he "gave 25" (dollars, by context), which "technically makes me a Satanist"; and "I'm still an atheist. I still don't believe in your God. I don't believe in your devil either" — "Why Aron Ra Joined The Satanic Temple," Skeptic Haven stream (YouTube, 2022-11-24), t. 0:02:36-0:04:50, 0:20:17-0:21:24.
Keep Telling Yourself It's Jesus
When Aron Ra was nineteen, a high-school friend led him through a born-again experience. He felt a dizzying euphoria, and then he asked the obvious question: how could he know it was real, and not a trick of the mind? His friend, he says, took him by both shoulders and told him to keep telling himself it was Jesus until he believed it.12 Aron Ra called it the most dishonest thing he had ever heard, and the end of religious belief for him. His friend, he likes to say, deconverted him faster than he had converted him.345
The friend became a Southern Baptist minister and the head of a Christian school; Aron Ra became an atheist YouTuber with, by 2026, more than 270,000 subscribers, the maker of a long video series against creationism, a candidate for the Texas Senate, and, at fifty-nine, a member of The Satanic Temple.16789 This chapter asks why a boy who believed in God but never in the Bible took so long to call himself an atheist, and why, once he did, he spent his life on evolution rather than on God.
God, but not the Bible
He was born in Kingman, Arizona, in October 1962, as Aron Nelson, according to Wikipedia; the name Aron Nelson appears on a list of witnesses at a hearing in 2013.1011 His childhood, by his own account, was chaotic: the family moved through the Four Corners states, where, he says, if you were not a Mormon you were not employed, and spent about half his time around Los Angeles.12 His family was Mormon, and he was baptised into the Latter-day Saints at eight; his mother worked at the temple. He says he never called himself a Mormon: asked his religion, he would say that his family was Mormon, and wait for the "but".13141516 He grew up, he says, being told by his parents and his babysitters that God was a proven scientific fact.17
In kindergarten at Anaheim, in 1967, a teacher told the class about plate tectonics and mentioned that Benjamin Franklin had been a deist, not a Christian.18 In second grade, in a small mining town in eastern Arizona, a teacher gave him a dinosaur book with a branching diagram of how living things are related. The relationships made sense to him, he says; Genesis did not.19 On his eighth birthday his mother gave him a Bible as the absolute truth. He read the second and third chapters of Genesis and went to tell his family that this was not literally true. He still believed in God, he says, but he never believed the Bible literally.20212223 That is his faith, as the timeline records it.
Twelve
At eleven, in Los Angeles, he went into a church for what he remembers as the first time, and was thrown out for calling the preacher a liar over a claim that human footprints had been found beside dinosaur tracks.2425 He tells this in two ways that do not sit easily together: in one, his family never took him to church; in others, his mother worked at the temple and he was baptised at eight. Accounts differ, and both are his.1324 The same year an adult who wanted him to believe called him a humanist, by which, he says, she meant an atheist, because he had said that no one should try to believe things that are not true.26
At twelve he tried to read the Bible through. He did not get out of Genesis before he threw it across the room in disgust, and he prayed that God either justify the evil the Bible attributed to him or show how the Bible had him wrong; if God did neither, he could not have Aron's soul. The prayer, he says wryly, was answered: he went on to find endless reasons to treat the Bible as man-made mythology. But he still believed in God, still believed in hell, and still called himself a Christian.2728293031 At fourteen, when a relative sent for four Mormon missionaries to set him straight, he questioned them about whether God has a body.32 The timeline records this as his crack: it was aimed at the Bible, and it left God standing.
Nineteen, and a detour
The break came at nineteen, around 1981, with the friend's advice to keep telling himself it was Jesus. He says he stopped believing in God within hours, or, in another telling, after a few days of thinking it over.13533 That year he read a Thai woman's account of her conversion to Buddhism and found it almost word for word what Christians had told him about Jesus; no belief, he concluded, was truer than another.34 The timeline places his doubt here.
It did not make him a rationalist at once. Heavy metal, Dungeons and Dragons and live role-playing had already got him accused of devil worship and pushed out of Christian circles, and in the 1980s, he says, there was no atheist movement to join, so he found himself among the neopagans.35 He practised meditation, believed he saw spectral figures and travelled out of his body, and was persuaded of psychic powers by television documentaries; he called himself an agnostic pagan for Christ, and, he says, sincerely identified as a Jedi.363738 Then he noticed that he could get people to see and feel whatever they already expected, with music, incense and suggestion, and realised that he was manufacturing an illusion in his own mind and handing it to others as real. It all collapsed.3940 His belief in the paranormal had outlasted his belief in God.36
The word
He was an atheist, he says, for about fifteen years before he learned that the word meant only someone who does not believe in a god, not necessarily someone who believes there is none. In time he came to that firmer belief as well: there is no God.4142 He calls his atheism a resignation rather than a resolve, and says he does not hate God, since one cannot hate someone who is not real.434445 Shortly before the year 2000 he became an activist online, defending the teaching of evolution against creationists.46 On the timeline, this is his declaration.
What moved him, he has said, was politics in the schools. Christians boasted to him that their churches had voted as a bloc, as their ministers told them, to place judges, senators and school-board members in a culture war he had not known was going on, and some hoped to replace democracy with theocracy. What got to him most was that students were being misled; he became an activist, he says, in defence of students' rights, because the factual truth mattered more to him than anything he might prefer to believe.47484950 Parents, he told a creationist opponent, may sadly teach their own children what they like; no one should be allowed to mislead other people's children in a classroom.51
Foundational Falsehoods
On 11 November 2007 he uploaded the first of his videos on the "Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism". In it he called creationism a con exploiting ordinary people's beliefs and fears, and drew a line: it is one thing, he said, to believe something that might be true, like God in general or Christianity, though neither can be tested; it is another to deceive people into believing what is definitely false.7525354 The series drew millions of views; a magazine counted seventeen videos and more than four million views by 2013.55 In 2012 a Dallas paper called him a popular "YouTube atheist" from Garland with more than sixty thousand subscribers, speaking on the steps of the Texas Capitol.56
In September 2013 he testified at the State Board of Education's hearing on science textbooks, trying, in a live blogger's words, to give a two-minute science lesson; the former chairman of the board, the creationist dentist Don McLeroy, testified the same day.57 In 2014 he toured with Seth Andrews and Matt Dillahunty as the "Unholy Trinity".58 In 2016 he became president of the Atheist Alliance of America and published his series as a book.5960 The same year he called himself a feminist, and said other atheists sent him a great deal of hate for it.6162
The Senate run
In March 2017 he resigned the presidency to run as a Democrat for the Texas Senate, in a district held by a Republican.8 He was questioned about his atheism at the first party meeting he went to, and one newspaper told his team it would never run a story about an atheist because its readers were Christian.636465 In November he withdrew, saying he had no reasonable chance and that two progressives should not split the money, and endorsed his rival; Wikipedia says he failed to win the party's endorsement. Accounts differ.66
The other side
His most constant opponent was Don McLeroy, who taught Sunday school for thirty-two years and chaired the board that set Texas's science standards. When the two debated in Dallas in January 2020, McLeroy stated his faith plainly: God created the heavens and the earth and man in his image, and Adam and Eve's sin explains how we came to be here. He argued that the textbooks' explanations of evolution were so weak that sceptical students would see the weaknesses for themselves.676869 Aron Ra told him that he was much of the reason Aron had become an activist.7048 A Christian reviewer answered Aron's account of his rebirth by saying that he should not have trusted his experiences but the word of God, and that once scripture is thrown out, anything goes.717273 An evangelical host who interviewed him in 2022 said that he had integrity, because he went after all religions and not only Christianity.7475
Satanist and atheist
In February 2022, at The Satanic Temple's first convention in Scottsdale, he announced that he had joined. He had held off, he said, partly because it was too obvious, and partly because Christians had accused him of devil worship since his teens.9 The Temple, he said, was basically secular humanism dressed up for Halloween; he preferred its seven tenets to the Ten Commandments; and he was still an atheist, who believed in neither God nor the devil.7677 The same year he took a degree in anthropology at Arizona State University.78 His revision on the timeline is a new affiliation and a new stage, not a new belief.
Did his unbelief change shape?
His unbelief changed its target more than its substance. A boy who believed in God but not in the Bible lost the Bible at twelve, God at nineteen, and the paranormal in his twenties, and only then learned the name for what he had become. Since then the argument has not been about God at all so much as about what children are taught. In 2007 his first video said that believing in God might be one thing and lying about evolution another; in 2026 he said his videos were not meant to make atheists.798081
Matt Dillahunty, who toured with him in 2014 and came out of a Southern Baptist faith he had set out to defend, has his own chapter in this book.
Footnotes
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AronRa, "A brief explanation of my deconversion" (YouTube, uploaded 2015-11-20; a clip from the Christian programme "The Place" with Dr Michael Jones, New Covenant Group), t. 0:01:44-0:02:51; AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies" (YouTube, uploaded 2022-02-15; his talk at The Satanic Temple's first convention, Scottsdale), t. 0:11:23-0:12:15; "Evangelical Talks With Atheist Aron Ra About The Book of Mormon & Religion," Mormon Book Reviews, host Steven Pynakker (YouTube, 2022-10-21), t. 0:54:41-0:55:21. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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the friend, as reported by Aron Ra: AronRa, "A brief explanation of my deconversion", t. 0:02:44-0:02:51; also RaSatanCon22 t. 0:12:05; "Evangelical Talks With Atheist Aron Ra…", t. 0:55:16. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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AronRa, "A brief explanation of my deconversion", t. 0:02:53-0:03:16; AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:12:36-0:12:52; "Evangelical Talks With Atheist Aron Ra…", t. 0:55:39-0:55:48. Accounts differ; see the disputed points. ↩ ↩2
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Aron Ra, 2015: AronRa, "A brief explanation of my deconversion", t. 0:02:53-0:03:07. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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Aron Ra, 2022: AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:12:43-0:12:58. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩ ↩2
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American Atheists, "Our People" (board of directors list, fetched 2026-10-15); Center for Inquiry, speaker page "Aron Ra" (fetched 2026-10-15). ↩
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AronRa, "1st Foundational Falsehood of Creationism" (YouTube, 2007-11-11; description names the script at a Homestead page, not retrieved); YouTube watch pages KnJX68ELbAY, ZFrkjEgUDZA, g8Q2Db17v5U. ↩ ↩2
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Aron Ra, "I am Resigned to Run for State Senate," Patheos, 11 March 2017 (blog since removed from Patheos). Wayback copy of 9 Aug 2020; Justin Clark, "Aron Ra Resigns as President of Atheist Alliance of America, Focuses on State Senate Run," 14 March 2017. ↩ ↩2
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AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:00:43-0:02:00, 0:02:38-0:03:00; Video descriptions for the items above (watch-page text); Wikipedia, "Aron Ra", revision 1355524897 (22 May 2026). Wikitext saved in research/texts/wikipedia-aron-ra.wikitext. Used as a map: birth, name, the SBOE and tour citations, the Satanist label, the ASU degree, the books. ↩ ↩2
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Wikipedia, "Aron Ra", (infobox, lead); AronRa, "Why I make Phylogeny Videos" (YouTube, uploaded 2026-10-13), t. 0:01:43. Reported at second hand; the original has not been seen. ↩
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Wikipedia, "Aron Ra"; Eugenie Scott, "There They Go Again (Of Necessity)," NCSE, 18 September 2013. Not verified. ↩
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"Evangelical Talks With Atheist Aron Ra…", t. 0:05:06-0:05:43; "Exploring Atheism | Aron Ra on the Rise of Atheism," The Lone Star Plate (YouTube, 2021-12-06), t. 0:08:33. ↩
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"Evangelical Talks With Atheist Aron Ra…", t. 0:02:40, 0:06:39; AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:06:26. ↩ ↩2
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"Evangelical Talks With Atheist Aron Ra…", t. 0:02:46-0:04:20; AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:06:26-0:06:44; "14-year-old AronRa debating his Mormon family," Dutch Skeptic (YouTube, 2016-07-05; excerpt of a talk), t. 0:00:38. ↩
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Aron Ra, 2022: "Evangelical Talks With Atheist Aron Ra…", t. 0:02:43-0:03:01. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). paraphrase-only; ellipsis omits "because I couldn't tell. I mean, I thought it was a logical question". ↩
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Aron Ra, c. 2016: "14-year-old AronRa debating his Mormon family,", t. 0:00:38. Not checked against the original (caption (creator-supplied); check audio). ↩
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Aron Ra, 2015: AronRa, "A brief explanation of my deconversion", t. 0:01:12-0:01:30. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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AronRa, "Why I make Phylogeny Videos", t. 0:01:43-0:02:27. ↩
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AronRa, "Why I make Phylogeny Videos", t. 0:04:19-0:05:00; AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:07:37-0:07:44. ↩
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AronRa, "Why I make Phylogeny Videos", t. 0:03:24-0:04:10. ↩
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AronRa, "Why I make Phylogeny Videos", t. 0:04:12-0:04:16; AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:07:20. ↩
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Aron Ra, 2026: AronRa, "Why I make Phylogeny Videos", t. 0:04:11-0:04:16. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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Aron Ra, 2026: AronRa, "Why I make Phylogeny Videos", t. 0:03:49-0:03:58. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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Aron Ra, 2021: "Exploring Atheism | Aron Ra on…", t. 1:19:20-1:19:30. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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AronRa, "Why I make Phylogeny Videos", t. 0:08:31-0:09:33. ↩
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AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:09:03-0:10:01; AronRa, "Why I make Phylogeny Videos", t. 0:06:08-0:06:30. ↩
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AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:10:42-0:10:55. ↩
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Aron Ra, 2022: AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:09:03-0:09:08. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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Aron Ra, 2022: AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:09:27-0:09:50. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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Aron Ra, 2022: AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:10:42-0:10:55. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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"14-year-old AronRa debating his Mormon family,", t. 0:00:26-0:01:56. ↩
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Aron Ra, 2022: "Evangelical Talks With Atheist Aron Ra…", t. 0:55:39-0:55:46. Not checked against the original (LOW in verify-quotes (73%): the checker's window counts the captioner's repeated words; passage found by hand at the stated time; check audio). ↩
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AronRa, "A brief explanation of my deconversion", t. 0:10:25-0:11:00. ↩
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AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:02:38-0:06:22; "Why Aron Ra Joined The Satanic Temple," Skeptic Haven stream (YouTube, 2022-11-24), t. 0:14:41-0:15:08. ↩
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AronRa, "A brief explanation of my deconversion", t. 0:03:16-0:06:05; "Is Faith Dishonest? A Conversation with Atheist Aron Ra," Apologetics Academy (YouTube, session of 2016-05-14, uploaded 2016-05-23), t. 0:01:44-0:03:30; AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:15:00-0:15:25. ↩ ↩2
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AronRa, "First Annual Atheist Day with Aron Ra" (YouTube, uploaded 2019-03-26; speech of 23 March 2019 at the Texas State Capitol), t. 0:05:17-0:05:45; AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:15:20-0:15:28. ↩
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Aron Ra, 2019: AronRa, "First Annual Atheist Day with Aron Ra", t. 0:05:27-0:05:33. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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AronRa, "A brief explanation of my deconversion", t. 0:04:47-0:09:09. ↩
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Aron Ra, 2015: AronRa, "A brief explanation of my deconversion", t. 0:08:56-0:09:09. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:13:31-0:13:49; AronRa, "First Annual Atheist Day with Aron Ra", t. 0:05:14-0:05:25. ↩
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Aron Ra, 2022: AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:13:31-0:13:52. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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AronRa, "First Annual Atheist Day with Aron Ra", t. 0:05:14-0:06:50, 0:12:33; YTdesc. ↩
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Aron Ra, 2019: AronRa, "First Annual Atheist Day with Aron Ra", t. 0:06:42-0:06:47. Not checked against the original (LOW in verify-quotes (78%): the caption garbles one word; check audio before use). ↩
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Aron Ra, 2019: AronRa, "First Annual Atheist Day with Aron Ra", t. 0:06:10-0:06:17. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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AronRa, "First Annual Atheist Day with Aron Ra", t. 0:00:00-0:00:12; "Evangelical Talks With Atheist Aron Ra…", t. 0:01:42-0:02:20; "Creation Vs Evolution | Aron Ra Vs Dr McLeroy | Podcast," Modern-Day Debate (YouTube, 2020-01-19; debate in Dallas), t. 0:17:15-0:17:40. ↩
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"Creation Vs Evolution | Aron Ra…", t. 0:17:41-0:19:30 (CC BY); "Evangelical Talks With Atheist Aron Ra…", t. 0:43:41-0:44:10; AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:19:16-0:19:24. ↩
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Aron Ra to Don McLeroy, 19 Jan 2020: "Creation Vs Evolution | Aron Ra…", t. 0:17:09-0:17:15. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩ ↩2
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Aron Ra, 19 Jan 2020: "Creation Vs Evolution | Aron Ra…", t. 0:17:41-0:18:02. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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Aron Ra, 2022: AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies", t. 0:19:16-0:19:24. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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Aron Ra, 19 Jan 2020: "Creation Vs Evolution | Aron Ra…", t. 0:19:27-0:19:38. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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AronRa, "1st Foundational Falsehood of Creationism", t. 0:01:25-0:03:30; YTdesc. ↩
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Aron Ra, 11 Nov 2007: AronRa, "1st Foundational Falsehood of Creationism", t. 0:01:28-0:01:38. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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Aron Ra, 11 Nov 2007: AronRa, "1st Foundational Falsehood of Creationism", t. 0:03:06-0:03:22. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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"Who's Who Among the State Board of Education Hearing," Texas Monthly Daily Post, 18 September 2013 (the page itself is dated 2013); Wikipedia, "Aron Ra". ↩
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Anna Merlan, "The Rise of the Texas Atheist," Dallas Observer, 6 December 2012. ↩
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Texas Freedom Network, "Live-Blogging the Texas Science Textbook Hearing (2013)," 17 September 2013, Wayback copy of 11 Feb 2015, (5:02 entry); "Who's Who Among the State Board…"; Scott, "There They Go Again (Of Necessity),". ↩
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Wikipedia, "Aron Ra". ↩
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Atheist Alliance of America, "Atheist Alliance of America Evolves" (press release, 11 Nov 2016) and "Episode 21: Aron Ra" (Secular Nation podcast post, 24 Aug 2016, "A chat with the new President"). Texts in research/texts/aaa-2016-evolves.txt and aaa-2016-ep21.txt. ↩
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"Aron Ra Talks Creationism And Evolution," Atheist Edge (YouTube, 2017-06-10), t. 0:00:20; Wikipedia, "Aron Ra". ↩
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Sincere Kirabo, "YouTube Atheists and Battling Online SJW Haters: An Interview with Aron Ra," The Humanist, 18 May 2016 (interview, his answers). ↩
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Kirabo, "YouTube Atheists and Battling Online SJW…". ↩
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Aron Ra, "Ending My State Senate Run," Patheos, 18 November 2017. Wayback copy of 7 Aug 2021. ↩
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Aron Ra, 18 Nov 2017: Ra, "Ending My State Senate Run,". ↩
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Aron Ra, 18 Nov 2017, reporting a newspaper's reply: Ra, "Ending My State Senate Run,". ↩
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Ra, "Ending My State Senate Run,"; Wikipedia, "Aron Ra". ↩
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"Creation Vs Evolution | Aron Ra…", t. 0:03:09-0:08:00; "Who's Who Among the State Board…". ↩
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Don McLeroy, dentist, former chair of the Texas State Board of Education, young-earth creationist; 19 Jan 2020 (CC BY): "Creation Vs Evolution | Aron Ra…", t. 0:03:22-0:03:37. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio (caption reads "Adams and Eve")). ↩
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Don McLeroy, same debate (CC BY): "Creation Vs Evolution | Aron Ra…", t. 0:07:47-0:07:55. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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"Creation Vs Evolution | Aron Ra…", t. 0:16:41-0:16:55. ↩
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BTWN News (Bible Thumping Wingnut; host not named in the captions), "AronRa's Deconversion Story | BTWN Review" (YouTube, 2018-11-04), t. 0:15:51-0:17:54, 0:29:44-0:32:40, 0:37:45-0:38:10. ↩
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Host of BTWN News (a Christian channel; name not in the captions), 4 Nov 2018, answering Ra's account of his rebirth and hallucinations (paraphrase-only): BTWN18, t. 0:32:34-0:32:40. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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Same host, same video (paraphrase-only): BTWN18, t. 0:37:05-0:37:21. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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"Is Faith Dishonest? A Conversation with…", t. 0:20:43-0:22:20; YTdesc. ↩
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Steven Pynakker, evangelical host of Mormon Book Reviews and a former atheist, in the video description, 21 Oct 2022 (paraphrase-only): YTdesc. ↩
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"Why Aron Ra Joined The Satanic Temple,", t. 0:02:36-0:04:50, 0:20:17-0:21:24. ↩
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Aron Ra, 2022: "Why Aron Ra Joined The Satanic Temple,", t. 0:21:15-0:21:20. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
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Wikipedia, "Aron Ra"; Inquiry, "Aron Ra". ↩
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AronRa, "1st Foundational Falsehood of Creationism", (YTdesc); AronRa, "Why I make Phylogeny Videos", t. 0:19:20-0:19:25. ↩
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AronRa, "Why I make Phylogeny Videos", t. 0:18:49-0:19:45. ↩
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Aron Ra, 13 Oct 2026: AronRa, "Why I make Phylogeny Videos", t. 0:19:20-0:19:25. Not checked against the original (caption only; check audio). ↩
In their own words
"I was a Christian at one point but I was never a fundamentalist. I believed primarily because my parents and my babysitters and other such people around me were telling me that God is a conclusively proven scientific fact and was beyond question."
"because I was so very young, I still believed in God, but I never believed in the Bible, not literally."
"On my first reading of Genesis 2, and 3, I went into the main room and told him that no, this is not the absolute literal truth because look what it says here."
"I was baptized as Mormon as a child at eight years old, but I never identified with Mormons ... how can you assume that just because your parents belong to a particular religion that you belong to that religion?"
"I tried to read the Bible when I was 12 and I didn't even make it out of Genesis before I threw it across the room in disgust."
"I prayed to God that he had better explain himself. He had better either justify all this evil and horror that was attributed to him in the Bible or show how the Bible got him all wrong, distance himself from the Bible, and if he did neither then he could not have my soul."
"Unfortunately that prayer was answered as I lived to see endless reasons to discount the Bible as man-made mythology. However, I still believed in God and I still considered myself a Christian."
"just keep telling yourself it's Jesus until you believe it"
"that was the most dishonest thing I'd ever heard come out of his mouth and to know that Christianity was represented with that, that's what faith meant, was the absolute destruction of religious belief for me."
"he deconverted me faster than he converted me. It was over in an instant, and after a few hours of reflection I was an atheist. I didn't know that I was atheist yet."
"it was a few days before of of deliberation after that before I I decided that I I don't believe in God anymore."
"when I realized that I was actually manufacturing an illusion in my own mind and then presenting it to other people as if it was real and it all collapsed."
"I was an atheist for 15 years before I found out that the word only meant someone who does not believe in God, not necessarily someone who has a belief that there is no God. Now I have a belief that there is no God. I eventually came to that conclusion, but that makes me a subset of those who do not believe that God exists."
"I used to call myself an agnostic pagan for Christ."
"so for me atheism is more a resignation than a resolve."
"nor do I hate God. How do you hate someone who isn't even real?"
"the first fact in evidence against God is that there is no evidence for God"
"I'm still an atheist. I still don't believe in your God. I don't believe in your devil either."
"The reason that I became an activist, the reason that I got involved in this is much, you know, much because of you."
"when a number of Christians were bragging to me about how their churches had all illegally voted as a lobby exactly as their ministers had told them to do in order to place certain judges and senators and school board members and so forth in order to enact what they were calling a culture war that I was not even aware was going on."
"it's one thing to lie to your own children. Sadly, you have a right to do that, but you should not ever be allowed to lie to other people's kids in a sequestered classroom where the teacher is supposed to be the authority."
"I became an atheist activist primarily in defense of students' rights, specifically because the actual factual truth matters more to me than whatever I might rather believe."
"creationism relies on ignorance it is not honest research it is a scam a con job exploiting the common folk and preying on their deepest beliefs and fears"
"it is one thing to believe in something which might be true like God in general or Christianity specifically even though neither can be substantiated or tested in any objective way but it's a whole other matter to willfully deceive others into believing things which are definitely not true like creationism"
"The purpose of this series is to understand the ever-advancing science behind evolution. It is not to make atheists."
"I was grilled about my atheism at the very first Democratic meeting I went to launching my campaign."
"One Newspaper responded saying, \"We will never run a story about an atheist because our readers are Christian\"."
"So in an effort to minimize distractions, I have resigned as President of Atheist Alliance of America to concentrate on my increasingly busy State Senate Campaign. Yes, I'm really doing this despite how much of a long shot this is."
"The advantage to being raised as a Mormon was that, once we moved out of areas dominated by Mormons, I got to experience the bigotry of different Christian denominations against each other."
"once I compared Abrahamic religions to Hinduism and others, I realized that the only common bond between them were faith-based assertions of what is essentially magic."
"I never called myself a Mormon."
"I was 11 when I first went into a church and I was thrown out for accusing the guy behind the podium of lying."
"no one offers a better defense of their constitutional freedom of religion than we heretical skeptical secular atheist activists"
"faith is essentially wanting to believe whatever you want to believe simply because you want to believe it"
"high school students have no proficiency to 'critique' scientific evidence and neither do most of their teachers."
The other side
"I believe that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And then he created man in his image and in soon thereafter Adam and Eve they sinned and that explains kind of how we got here ultimately."
"I made a prediction that the explanations offered in the text will be so weak that the students who are skeptical of evolution will see the weaknesses for themselves."
"hidden gems just waiting to be mined by inquisitive students"
"I was an atheist till my 40s totally never went to church was not baptized always thought that atheism is beyond question ... because of philosophical arguments and because of evidential arguments I became convinced that I was wrong and I'm now a theist and a Christian."
"don't trust your experiences, trust the Word of God"
"once you throw out God once you throw out the scripture as the standard of truth, anything goes, absolutely anything goes."
"I do think that Aron has integrity because he goes after all religions and not just Christianity."
Where accounts differ
| Point | One account | Another | How the page handles it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Was he a Mormon? | "baptized as a Mormon"; his family and mother Mormon (Wikipedia; RaMBR22) | "I never identified as Mormon," though baptised LDS at eight (RaSatanCon22, RaMBR22, RaDutch16) | Say he was baptised at eight and never called himself a Mormon, in his words |
| Did the family take him to church? | "my family didn't take me to church; I was 11 when I first went into a church" (RaLSP21) | His mother "worked at the temple"; baptised at eight; mother's church held back doctrine until eight (RaMBR22, RaPhylo26) | Present as his own two tellings; do not reconcile; note the temple/church distinction as a possibility only |
| How long after the rebirth did he stop believing? | "after a few hours of reflection I was an atheist" (RaSatanCon22 t. 0:12:49) | "a few days of deliberation ... before I decided that I don't believe in God anymore" (RaMBR22 t. 0:55:41) | "within hours or days, by his own accounts" |
| Year of the rebirth | "I was 19" (RaDecon15 t. 0:01:50): between Oct 1981 and Oct 1982 | He read a Thai convert's account "in 1981" that matched his rebirth (RaDecon15 t. 0:10:27), so the rebirth came by late 1981 | "around 1981, at nineteen" |
| When he became an atheist | The break c. 1981 (his own account, above) | He learned the word only about fifteen years later and began activism "shortly before Y2K" (RaSatanCon22; RaAtheistDay19) | Tell both: he says he was an atheist from c. 1981 without the word; the public declaration is c. 1998-99 |
| Number of videos in the series | "17 videos ... more than four million views" (TexasMonthly13, the page itself) | "27 videos" (Wikipedia's quotation of the same sentence, dated "2015") | Avoid a count; if needed, say "a series of more than a dozen" and check the channel playlist |
| Why the Senate run ended | He withdrew: no realistic chance, money, a stronger Democratic rival, and endorsed Scudder (Patheos17b) | "dropped out of the race after failing to secure the Democratic Party's endorsement" (WP-AronRa) | Use his reason and say so |
| Year of the Senate run | Announced 11 March 2017 for the 2018 primary (Patheos17a, AAA17) | The roster line says 2016 | Correct to 2017-18 |
| Last Democrat in District 2 | "since 1998" (Patheos17a) | "since 2002" (AAA17) | Avoid the figure |
| Who went to the footprints sermon | He thought it was his grandmother (RaLSP21) | His mother says it was she (RaLSP21) | Mention only if the sermon is used; he flags it himself |
| When McLeroy joined the board | 1999 election (RaMcLeroy20) | began in 1998 (TexasMonthly13) | Say "elected in the late 1990s" |
| Date of the Texas Monthly piece | 18 September 2013 (the page) | 18 September 2015 (Wikipedia's citation) | Use 2013; the hearing was 17 Sept 2013 |
List of illustrations
This page uses only public-domain and Creative Commons images; each is credited with its source and licence.
- Aron Ra lectures in Utrecht, May 3, 2015 — R. van Elst, 2015-05-03 · R. van Elst, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons file page; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
- Charles Darwin's first evolutionary tree, Notebook B, p. 36 ('I think') — Charles Darwin, 1837-07 · Charles Darwin, Notebook B p. 36 (from Darwin Online), via Wikimedia Commons, public domain · Public domain (Wikimedia Commons file page; Charles Darwin, 1837)
- Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, Dinosaurs hall, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — USDAgov, 2013-04-03 · John Gibbons, Smithsonian, via USDA Flickr and Wikimedia Commons, public domain · Public domain (Wikimedia Commons file page; Smithsonian photo by John Gibbons, via USDA Flickr)
- Stammbaum des Menschen (Pedigree of Man), Ernst Haeckel, Anthropogenie 1874, Tafel XII — Ernst Haeckel, 1874 · Ernst Haeckel, Anthropogenie (Leipzig: Engelmann, 1874), Tafel XII, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain · Public domain (Wikimedia Commons file page; Ernst Haeckel, 1874)
- Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas (built 1882-1888) — LoneStarMike, 2010-01-02 · LoneStarMike, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 · CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons file page; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)
- Aron Ra at a meeting in Amsterdam in cafe De Doffer, 7 January 2018 — Magere Hein, 2018-01-07 · Magere Hein, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons file page; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)
Sources
Tier 1 — the subject's own words (talks, videos, blog posts, interviews)
- [RaDecon15] AronRa, "A brief explanation of my deconversion" (YouTube, uploaded 2015-11-20; a clip from the Christian programme "The Place" with Dr Michael Jones, New Covenant Group). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGUVcM744iI . Text in research/texts/yt-OGUVcM744iI-deconversion.txt. Auto-captions.
- [RaSatanCon22] AronRa, "Darwin and the Lord of Lies" (YouTube, uploaded 2022-02-15; his talk at The Satanic Temple's first convention, Scottsdale). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwunAyuXRow . Text in research/texts/yt-OwunAyuXRow-darwin-lord-of-lies.txt. Auto-captions. His fullest spoken account of his own path.
- [RaPhylo26] AronRa, "Why I make Phylogeny Videos" (YouTube, uploaded 2026-10-13). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EqaoC9a_Yg . Text in research/texts/yt-1EqaoC9a_Yg-why-phylogeny.txt. Auto-captions. Two days old at the date of this pass; the childhood account is new and should be re-checked for edits.
- [RaMBR22] "Evangelical Talks With Atheist Aron Ra About The Book of Mormon & Religion," Mormon Book Reviews, host Steven Pynakker (YouTube, 2022-10-21). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PgU7zEw0yw . Text in research/texts/yt-3PgU7zEw0yw-mormon-book-reviews.txt. Auto-captions.
- [RaAtheistDay19] AronRa, "First Annual Atheist Day with Aron Ra" (YouTube, uploaded 2019-03-26; speech of 23 March 2019 at the Texas State Capitol). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WoF-ikYw2I . Text in research/texts/yt-5WoF-ikYw2I-atheist-day.txt. Auto-captions.
- [RaTST22] "Why Aron Ra Joined The Satanic Temple," Skeptic Haven stream (YouTube, 2022-11-24). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dTlReS6BGk . Text in research/texts/yt-5dTlReS6BGk-why-joined-tst.txt. Auto-captions; strong language, paraphrase.
- [RaEvidence23] AronRa, "Evidence Against God" (YouTube, 2023-09-18). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwUmaCS6pjA . Text in research/texts/yt-iwUmaCS6pjA-evidence-against-god.txt.
- [RaFF1] AronRa, "1st Foundational Falsehood of Creationism" (YouTube, 2007-11-11; description names the script at a Homestead page, not retrieved). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnJX68ELbAY . Text in research/texts/yt-KnJX68ELbAY-ff1.txt. Other series videos not read: 2nd (ZFrkjEgUDZA, 2007-11-24), 7th (g8Q2Db17v5U, 2008-02-27).
- [RaLSP21] "Exploring Atheism | Aron Ra on the Rise of Atheism," The Lone Star Plate (YouTube, 2021-12-06). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJvXDxCL4XU . Text in research/texts/yt-cJvXDxCL4XU-lone-star-plate.txt. Auto-captions.
- [RaDutch16] "14-year-old AronRa debating his Mormon family," Dutch Skeptic (YouTube, 2016-07-05; excerpt of a talk). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osWVFF03z8o . Text in research/texts/yt-osWVFF03z8o-14-year-old.txt. Creator-supplied captions (the only creator-captioned text in the set).
- [RaMcLeroy20] "Creation Vs Evolution | Aron Ra Vs Dr McLeroy | Podcast," Modern-Day Debate (YouTube, 2020-01-19; debate in Dallas). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs56XH_wP6Q . Text in research/texts/yt-Vs56XH_wP6Q-mcleroy-debate.txt. Auto-captions. Licence on the watch page: "Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)"; the only openly licensed item in this set. Credit: Modern-Day Debate, CC BY.
- [AppAcad16] "Is Faith Dishonest? A Conversation with Atheist Aron Ra," Apologetics Academy (YouTube, session of 2016-05-14, uploaded 2016-05-23). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLpKERSYTC0 . Text in research/texts/yt-qLpKERSYTC0-apologetics-academy.txt. Auto-captions; speakers other than Ra are not named in the captions.
- [AtheistEdge17] "Aron Ra Talks Creationism And Evolution," Atheist Edge (YouTube, 2017-06-10). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z53rtFgUXE . Text in research/texts/yt-9z53rtFgUXE-atheist-edge.txt.
- [Patheos17a] Aron Ra, "I am Resigned to Run for State Senate," Patheos, 11 March 2017 (blog since removed from Patheos). Wayback copy of 9 Aug 2020. Text in research/texts/patheos-2017-03-11-resigned-archived.txt.
- [Patheos17b] Aron Ra, "Ending My State Senate Run," Patheos, 18 November 2017. Wayback copy of 7 Aug 2021. Text in research/texts/patheos-2017-11-18-ending-archived.txt.
- [AronRaOrg18] "About," Aron Ra for Texas Senate (aronra.org/node/6), Wayback copy of 16 Sept 2018. Text in research/texts/aronra-org-about-2018-archived.txt.
- [YTdesc] Video descriptions for the items above (watch-page text). Text in research/texts/yt-descriptions.txt.
- [Humanist16] Sincere Kirabo, "YouTube Atheists and Battling Online SJW Haters: An Interview with Aron Ra," The Humanist, 18 May 2016 (interview, his answers). https://thehumanist.com/magazine/july-august-2016/interviews/youtube-atheists-battling-online-sjw-haters-interview-aron-ra . Text in research/texts/humanist-2016.txt.
- Read for checking, not used: "From Mormon to Christian to atheist" (8IEe3C3jHuM) and "Deconversion from Four Corners Fundamentalism" (ZG-yoJFoN_c) are other people's stories on his channel or stream; "Why We Wanted to Believe" (Z50lYQsABjs, 2017) and The Phil Ferguson Show no. 187 (yNGFlcckiXA, 2016-10-03) contain no autobiographical passage that bears on belief.
Tier 2 — scholarly biographies and encyclopedias
- None. No scholarly biography or reference entry exists for a living YouTube activist; the series relies on Tier 1 and Tier 3.
Tier 3 — popular biographies and journalism
- [DallasObs12] Anna Merlan, "The Rise of the Texas Atheist," Dallas Observer, 6 December 2012. https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/the-rise-of-the-texas-atheist-6428288 . Text in research/texts/dallasobserver-2012-12-06.txt.
- [TexasMonthly13] "Who's Who Among the State Board of Education Hearing," Texas Monthly Daily Post, 18 September 2013 (the page itself is dated 2013). https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/whos-who-among-the-state-board-of-education-hearing/ . Text in research/texts/texasmonthly-2013-09-18.txt.
- [TFN13] Texas Freedom Network, "Live-Blogging the Texas Science Textbook Hearing (2013)," 17 September 2013, Wayback copy of 11 Feb 2015. Text in research/texts/tfn-2013-09-17-live-blog-archived.txt.
- [NCSE13] Eugenie Scott, "There They Go Again (Of Necessity)," NCSE, 18 September 2013. https://ncse.ngo/there-they-go-again-necessity . Text in research/texts/ncse-2013-09-18.txt. Lists "Aron Nelson" among the witnesses.
- [HeraldDem17] Sanya Mansoor, "Texas education board nears compromise on evolution standards," Herald Democrat, 18 April 2017, Wayback copy. Text in research/texts/heralddemocrat-2017-04-18-archived.txt.
- [AAA16] Atheist Alliance of America, "Atheist Alliance of America Evolves" (press release, 11 Nov 2016) and "Episode 21: Aron Ra" (Secular Nation podcast post, 24 Aug 2016, "A chat with the new President"). Texts in research/texts/aaa-2016-evolves.txt and aaa-2016-ep21.txt.
- [AAA17] Justin Clark, "Aron Ra Resigns as President of Atheist Alliance of America, Focuses on State Senate Run," 14 March 2017. Text in research/texts/aaa-2017-resigns.txt.
- [CFI] Center for Inquiry, speaker page "Aron Ra" (fetched 2026-10-15). Text in research/texts/cfi-speaker.txt.
- [AAboard] American Atheists, "Our People" (board of directors list, fetched 2026-10-15). Text in research/texts/aa-board.txt.
Tier 4 — Wikipedia and similar reference sites (citable; give the article and revision date; prefer a higher tier where one exists)
- [WP-AronRa] Wikipedia, "Aron Ra", revision 1355524897 (22 May 2026). Wikitext saved in research/texts/wikipedia-aron-ra.wikitext. Used as a map: birth, name, the SBOE and tour citations, the Satanist label, the ASU degree, the books.
- [WP-AAoA] Wikipedia, "SecularHelp" (the article on Atheist Alliance of America), revision 1361981353 (1 July 2026). Text in research/texts/wikipedia-secularhelp.wikitext. Lists him as a past president.
- Not reachable: Houston Chronicle, 13 April 2005 (cited by Wikipedia for paleontology at UT Dallas; the article URL returns 404); the De Vrijdenker pieces of 2015 (Dutch magazine, cited by Wikipedia for "baptized as a Mormon" and "sceptic since young").
Opposition sources — contemporary critics and religious responses
- [BTWN18] BTWN News (Bible Thumping Wingnut; host not named in the captions), "AronRa's Deconversion Story | BTWN Review" (YouTube, 2018-11-04). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3R0DnBMIiE . Text in research/texts/yt-f3R0DnBMIiE-btwn-deconversion.txt. Auto-captions; a Christian reviewer's point-by-point reply to [RaDecon15].
- [RaMcLeroy20] (above): Don McLeroy's opening statement and exchange, CC BY.
- [AppAcad16] (above): questions from Christian participants; one caller, a former atheist, is quoted.
- [RaMBR22] (above) and [YTdesc]: Steven Pynakker's description and introduction.
- [TexasMonthly13] on McLeroy's 2013 testimony.
Related lives
Matt Dillahunty (b. 1969), who toured with him in the "Unholy Trinity" and whose road out of a Southern Baptist faith is the opposite case, a believer who set out to defend his faith (roster).
Taslima Nasrin
Taslima Nasrin was born into a Muslim family in Mymensingh. As a child she decided that her mother's preacher's God was cruel, and she became an atheist, she said, through scientific training. Her unbelief came out in her columns on what clerics did to women, and in a 1994 letter calling every scripture "out of place and out of time", and it cost her Bangladesh. In exile she wanted all religion banned (1995). Over thirty years she softened the demand without giving up the conviction, ending in 2025 with criticism "proportionate to the harm" and a right to believe or not.
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervais dates his unbelief, by his own later telling, to a moment at about eight, when his brother asked why he believed in God and his mother's "Bob!" told him something was being hidden. The unbelief has not moved since, but its voice has. It went from a film about a world without lies (2009) and an essay complaining that the honest answer sounds rude (2010), to a plea to "just be kind" (2013), and to the label "agnostic atheist", with the argument of "one less god", put to a Catholic talk-show host (2017).
Sean Carroll
Sean Carroll was raised Episcopalian near Philadelphia, and the family's church-going ended when his grandmother died, when he was about ten. He drifted from belief gradually, with no crisis, and first called himself an atheist aloud at Villanova, a Catholic university, after hearing a rock song that treated unbelief as something to be happy about. His first public argument was a 2003 Notre Dame paper, published in 2005, that treated God as a hypothesis to be rejected on scientific grounds; his blog, his refusal of Templeton money (2013) and his 2014 debate with William Lane Craig followed. From about 2009 he changed his method rather than his conclusion: he gave up arguing that God does not exist in favour of "poetic naturalism" (2016), saying he had no interest in attacking religion and preferred the constructive work of following naturalism through.
Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry was brought up "in no faith at all". He went through an adolescent love of the Anglican church before deciding, in a phrase he called grand, that he was too "Hellenic" to believe. His unbelief never changed after that, but its forms did: "reason is my religion" (2005), a campaign against the Catholic Church (2009), and an angry hypothetical answer about God on Irish television (2015) that was reported under a blasphemy law he had once half-defended, a law Ireland then voted away (2018). Finally came his retellings of the Greek myths.