How does religious faith die? Faith dies in a thousand different ways. It dies suddenly, in reverse-Damascus experiences. It dies cut by cut, drip by drip, until the prophets and shades fall silent. It dies in ways comprehensible and ways mysterious.
Two new memoirs, however, suggest a surprisingly common, brutal calculus employed by former fervent believers. When religion ceases to be useful to us, apostasy is almost a given.
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