"At my conversion I became the typical zealot. Within a couple of months I had read the Bible in its entirety. I could quote substantially on any subject. Early on, noticing how little so-called Bible-believing Christians knew, I began preaching and teaching school, church, Lions prayer breakfast etc..."
"I learned critical thinking skills and how to truly research something. After doing research as an historian I took a course on American myths. One of the books for this class covered revelation; the book covered an extensive discourse on disproving this part of the Bible. Not taking its argument at face value, I went to the library and looked up critiques on the book. I found several, BUT not one of these ( "authorities" in the Christian church, none the less ) argued it as a false premise; only ad hominem commentary."
"This crushed me. This meant that I had wasted many, many years in a religion that was based on a complete fraud. I was so depressed my wife had to, literally, drag me out of bed and dress me for work. Suicide was a serious risk. This was also very motivating. I looked deeper into the Bible. There was so much out of place that I quickly left the church and its ideologies behind." ( A quotation from: exchristian.org / why I joined / Massive Depression from Waste of Many, Many Years. )