Leaving Your Religion Is Absolutely Possible

Why not choose a god-free, rock-solid philosophy of life instead?

An important headline is that leaving your religion is possible. You may have some doubts that leaving is possible but leaving happens all the time. Millions of people have left their birth religion or their adopted religion. Being born into a religion or choosing a religion doesn’t mean that you must stay in it or that you will stay in it.

A 2014 Pew Research Center study found the following retention rates among the world’s religions: Hinduism retained 80% of those born Hindu, Islam retained 77%, Judaism 75%, Evangelical Christianity 65%, Mormonism 64%, Catholicism 59%, mainline Protestantism 45%, and Jehovah’s Witnesses 34%.

Think about that. More than half of Protestants leave their religion. A third of evangelical Christians leave. A quarter of Muslims leave. A fifth of Hindus leave. Lots of people change their minds. Some, of course, switch from religion to religion. 17% of American Jews, for instance, say that they were raised in another religion, with 4% coming from mainline Protestantism, 3% from Catholicism, and 2% from evangelical Christianity. But most people who leave their religion make the switch not to another religion but to agnosticism, atheism, or “nothing in particular.” Lots and lots of people are making that switch.

Switch where? Well, I think that kirism is a good place to land!

Kirism is a god-free, non-spiritual, non-occult, naturalistic philosophy of life that offers you a vision of life as it is and that describes how you might want to live life. If you’re a believer, if you’re wavering in your belief, or if you recently left your faith, let me address you directly.

Currently, you may identify as a Christian, Jew, Hindu, Moslem, Buddhist, or with some other religion or occult philosophy. You may currently believe in a god, in gods, or in a conscious or spiritual universe that thinks about you, that listens to you and that cares about you.

At the same time, may have some serious doubts about your religion or your philosophical affiliation, either because of what you see as its antiquated and dogmatic beliefs and practices or, more fundamentally, because you no longer believe in a god or gods. You may be someone who is half-way out the door of your religion.

Or you may be someone who has already left your religion. You may still have religious and spiritual longings and you may still have good feelings for many of the people you’ve left behind. But, basically, you’ve stopped believing in your religion. You’ve walked away, either quietly, so quietly that no one knows that you’ve left, or maybe more openly, with all the fall-out that may have accompanied your leave-taking announcement.

I think that kirism, the philosophy of life that I’ve developed, can help provide you with a useful, new foundation. If you would like to learn more about kirism, please go directly to Lighting the Way, in which kirism is introduced. It may help you take that step out the door of your current religion or philosophy, that step that you know you really ought to take. The only way to know is to see for yourself. Come on over!