Western Kentucky University TopSCHOLAR® Masters Theses & Specialist Projects Graduate School 5-2013 When God Dies: Deconversion from Theism as Analogous to the Experience of Death William David Simpson Western Kentucky University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses Part of the Christianity Commons, Philosophy Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Simpson, William David, "When God Dies: Deconversion from Theism as Analogous to the Experience of Death" (2013). Masters Theses & Specialist Projects. Paper 1259. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1259 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by TopSCHOLAR®. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses & Specialist Projects by an authorized administrator of TopSCHOLAR®. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. WHEN GOD DIES: DECONVERSION FROM THEISM AS ANALOGOUS TO THE EXPERIENCE OF DEATH A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Religious Studies Masters Program Western Kentucky University Bowling Green, Kentucky In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Masters of Arts By William David Simpson May 2013 If you can recognize God, and you have learned to relate to him as existing in the world – if this God is real to you – you should feel the feelings that should come from such a relationship. But if God can show up, he can also go away. T.M. Luhrmann, When God Talks Back pp. 101, 281 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my family for their continuing support throughout my time at WKU.