John W. Loftus is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 who writes about his conversion from ordained minister to atheist

Atheism

Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...

. His best known book is Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity.

Education and career as a Christian

Loftus earned a bachelors degree (B.R.E.), from Great Lakes Christian College

Great Lakes Christian College

Great Lakes Christian College is a four-year Christian college in Delta Township, Michigan near the state capital of Lansing. It is supported by Independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ and currently has 260 enrolled students...

 in 1977. He later earned two masters degrees, M.A. & M.DiV., from Lincoln Christian University, and a Masters of Theology degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School is an evangelical Christian seminary located in Deerfield, Illinois. TEDS is one of the largest seminaries in the world, enrolling more than 1,200 graduate students in professional and academic programs, including more than 150 in its PhD programs...

. He became ordained as a minister in the Church of Christ

Church of Christ

Churches of Christ are autonomous Christian congregations associated with one another through common beliefs and practices. They seek to base doctrine and practice on the Bible alone, and seek to be New Testament congregations as originally established by the authority of Christ. Historically,...

 and taught apologetics for Lincoln Christian University, College of Lake County

College of Lake County

The College of Lake County is a community college in Grayslake, Illinois. In 1967, a referendum passed establishing the CLC community college district...

, Kellogg Community College

Kellogg Community College

Kellogg Community College , is a public college, which was founded in 1956, is a two-year institution of higher learning which provides academic, occupational, general, and lifelong learning opportunities on campus in Battle Creek, Michigan, as well as at off-campus sites and online. The college...

 and Trine University.

Career as an atheist

During his almost twenty years as a evangelical Christian and Christian apologist, he experienced growing doubt about the tenets of the Christian faith. In the late 1990s he experienced a crisis of faith that led him to reject Christianity altogether. He eventually wrote a book laying out his case against Christianity, which was published in 2008 as Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity. In it he describes the reasons that led him to reject the Christian doctrines and beliefs he had "once accepted as rock-solid truths." Later that same year he published a companion book entitled Why I Became an Atheist: Personal Reflections and Additional Arguments.

He co-edited (with Dan Barker) the anthology The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails, (Amherst, NY Prometheus Books  2010) ISBN 1-61614-168-4 and edited The End of Christianity (Amherst, NY Prometheus Books 2011) ISBN 1-61614-414-2. He founded the website Debunking Christianity.

Criticism

Several chapters and even entire books have been published by Christian authors to respond to his outspoken atheism.