Minister Turned Atheist

Dan became a teenage evangelist at age 15. At 16 he was choir librarian for faith-healer Kathryn Kuhlman’s Los Angeles appearances. He received a degree in Religion from Azusa Pacific University and was ordained to the ministry by the Standard Community Church, California, in 1975. (See ordination.) He served as associate pastor in three California churches: Arcadia Friend’s Church (Quaker), Glengrove Assembly of God (Hacienda Heights), and Standard Christian Center, an independent Charismatic church loosely affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ tradition) in Standard, California. Dan was a Protestant missionary in Mexico for a total of two years.

Dan preached for 19 years. He maintained an ongoing touring musical ministry, including eight years of full-time, cross-country evangelism. An accomplished pianist, record producer, arranger and songwriter, he worked with Christian music companies such as Manna Music and Word Music. For a few years, Dan wrote and produced the annual “Mini Musicale” for Gospel Light Publications’ Vacation Bible School curriculum.

For more than two decades, Dan was accompanist, arranger, and record producer for Manuel Bonilla, the leading Christian singer in the Spanish-speaking world. He accompanied on the piano such Christian personalities as Pat Boone, Jimmy Roberts (of the Lawrence Welk Show), and gospel songwriter Audrey Meier, and was a regular guest on Southern California’s “Praise The Lord” TV show (Spanish). One of Dan’s Christian songs, “There Is One,” was performed by Rev. Robert Schuller’s television choir on the “Hour of Power” broadcast. To this day, he receives royalties from his popular children’s Christian musicals, “Mary Had a Little Lamb” (1977), and “His Fleece Was White As Snow” (1978), both published by Manna Music and performed in many countries.

Following five years of reading, Dan gradually outgrew his religious beliefs. “If I had limited myself to Christian authors, I’d still be a Christian today,” Dan says. “I just lost faith in faith.” He announced his atheism publicly in January, 1984. He tells his story in the books Losing Faith in Faith (1992) and Godless (2008).

Dan was PR Director of the Freedom From Religion Foundation from 1987 to 2004. He was elected co-president of the Foundation with Annie Laurie Gaylor in 2004, with whom he is co-host of Freethought Radio, a national weekly talkshow, and Freethought Matters, a weekly televsion show. He is a contributing editor of Freethought Today and is involved with the Foundation’s state/church lawsuits. He regularly travels the country and the world giving lectures, performing concerts, and participating in debates with theists, many at college and university campuses.

  (2015. Photo by Ingrid Laas.)

(2014. Photo by Ingrid Laas)

(2010. Photo by Tim Hughes.)

(2008. Photo by Brent Nicastro.)

(2001. Photo by Brent Nicastro.)

  (1976. Photo by Roger Finefrock.)

Books

Losing Faith In Faith: From Preacher To Atheist (FFRF, Inc., 1992)
Dan's autobiographical story of deconversion, and a critical analysis of Christianity and the bible. 

Godless: How An Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists Foreword by Richard Dawkins (Ulysses Press, 2008)
A lot has happened in the 16 years since Losing Faith in Faith. Updating Dan's earlier book, Godless tells of lessons learned on the debate circuit, taking a lawsuit to the Supreme Court, and more bible criticism and debunking of theistic arguments. 

Life Driven Purpose: How an Atheist Finds Meaning, Foreword by Daniel C. Dennett (Pitchstone Press, 2015)
Is life meaningless without God? Dan shows it is the other way around. True meaning and purpose come from within, not from "out there." 

GOD: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction, Foreword by Richard Dawkins (Sterling Publishing, February 2016) 

Documents Richard Dawkins's famous sentence from The God Delusion: "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."

Free Will Explained: How Science and Philosophy Converge to Create a Beautiful Illusion, Foreword by Michael Shermer. (Sterling Publishing, 2018)
Free will is not a scientific truth; it is a social truth. 

Mere Morality (Pitchstone Publishing, 2018)
How to be good without God. 

The Good Atheist: Living A Purpose-Filled Life Without God Foreword by Julia Sweeney, (Ulysses Press, 2011)
Answers Rick Warren's claim that without God, life is purposeless. Includes brief profiles of more than 300 atheists and agnostics who have lived lives of immense purpose. 

Just Pretend: A Freethought Book For Children (FFRF, Inc., 1988) (2002 new edition)
Overtly freethought. Compares God and Santa, myth with reality, and celebrates atheism and freedom of thought. 

Maybe Yes, Maybe No: A Guide For Young Skeptics (Prometheus Books, 1990)
Teaches the scientific method to children. 

Maybe Right, Maybe Wrong: A Guide For Young Thinkers (Prometheus Books, 1992)
Teaches humanistic morality to children. 

Dan also has written a variety of educational booklets, brochures and "nontracts" for the Foundation.

Other Writings

"Supernatural Evil," in God and Horrendous Suffering, edited by John W. Loftus, GCRR Press, 2021.

"It Ain't Necessarily So: Music's Debt to Nonbelievers," in Everything You Know About God is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Religion, edited by Russ Kick, The Disinformation Company, 2007.

"Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead?", in Abuse Your Illusions: The Disinformation Guide to Media Mirages and Establishment Lies, edited by Russ Kick, The Disnformation Company, 2003.

"Yip Harburg: Secular Songwriter," in Rhymes For the Irreverent, by Yip Harburg, FFRF, Inc., 2006.

"No Stone Unturned," in The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You To Read, edited by Tim Leedom, Kendall Hunt Publishing, 1993.

Foreword to God and the Folly of Faith: The Incompatibility of Science and Religion, by Victor Stenger, Prometheus Books, 2012.

Foreword to Perfidious Proverbs and Other Poems: A Satirical Look At The Bible, by Philip Appleman, Prometheus Books, 2011.

Foreword to 30 Arguments Against the Existence of "God," Divine Design, Heaven, Hell, and Satan, by Jonathan Pearce, Onus Books (Ginger Prince Publications), 2022.

Foreword to The Not So Good Book: What Does the "Holy Bible" Really Teach?, by Brian Bolton, FFRF, Inc., 2021.

Foreword to The Rise and Fall of Faith: A God-to-Godless Story for Christians and Atheists, by Drew Bekius, Pitchstone Publishing, 2017.

Foreword to To the Cross and Back: An Immigrant's Journey from Faith to Reason, by Fernando Alcántar, Pitchstone Publishing, 2015.

Foreword to The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails, edited by John Loftus, Prometheus Books, 2010.

Foreword to Courage to Doubt, by Stephen J. Hurlin, Raider Publishing International, 2009.

Preface to The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American, by Andrew Seidel, Sterling Publishing, 2019.

Blogs

Dan has written a number of blogs for FFRF's "Freethought Now" site: https://freethoughtnow.org/author/dbarker/

Media Appearances

Dan has appeared on many national television talkshows, including The Daily Show (twice), the Phil Donahue Show (twice), Sally Jessy Raphael Show (three times), and twice with Oprah Winfrey. He has also appeared on The O'Reilly Factor (with Bill O'Reilly), the Morton Downey, Jr. Show, the Maury Povich Show, "NightTalk with Jane Whitney," "A Closer Look, with Faith Daniels," the "Shirley Show" (Toronto), Pat Robertson's CBN "Straight Talk," ABC's "Good Morning America" with host Joan Lunden, "Religion & Ethics News Weekly" hosted by Betty Rollin on PBS, the "Hannity & Colmes" talkshow on the Fox-News TV network, with Bill O'Reilley, Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson on FOX News, "FOX and Friends," CNN Español, ESPN2, and Court TV's "Pros & Cons" show hosted by Nancy Grace. He has more than once been featured in national TV shows in Australia, including "60 Minutes Australia."

Dan has been a guest on many regional TV talkshows and hundreds of radio interviews. He talks on dozens of college campuses each year, as the most requested speaker of the Secular Student Alliance (SSA) speaker's bureau, in campus tours co-organized by FFRF and SSA. He regularly speaks and performs freethought concerts around the country at Unitarian-Universalist congregations, Ethical Culture, universities (including Harvard), and humanist conventions.

Debates

Since February 1985, Dan Barker has participated in more than 130 formal public debates in colleges and churches around the world on such topics as:

• Does God exist?
• Does God not exist?
• Does ethics require God?
• Is there life after death?
• Without God we are nothing (with Cardinal George Pell)
• Should government and religion be strictly separate?
• Did Jesus rise from the dead?
• Jesus of Nazareth: messiah or myth?
• Is Christianity true?
• Is the bible an acceptable guide for morality?
• Is the Bible full of errors and deceit? 
• Is America a Christian nation?

Freethought Music

In 2001, the Foundation produced Friendly Neighborhood Atheist, a 2-CD musical album with 34 of Dan's freethought songs covering the years 1985–2000. In 2004, the Freedom From Religion Foundation produced Beware of Dogma, a musical CD with 16 freethought songs. Adrift on a Star was released in January 2013, with 14 new songs (plus 3 bonus tracks), including "Poor Little Me," which was co-written by Dan and Broadway composer Charles Strouse (Annie, Bye Bye Birdie).

Dan's freethought songs include:

"Adrift On A Star" (lyrics by Yip Harburg)
"Benediction" (poem by Sherry Matulis)
"Beware of Dogma"
"Blood Brothers"
"Freedom From Religion"
"Friendly, Neighborhood Atheist"
"Get Off Your Knees (And Get To Work)"
"God-Less America" (with Steve Benson, music Irving Berlin)
"God's Grandeur" (poem by Philip Appleman)
"Heaven" (poem by Rupert Brook)
"Higher Mind"
"I Don't Need Jesus"
"In A Dark Time" (poem by Philip Appleman)
"It's Only Natural"
"Joy To The World" (for the Godless Gospel project)
"Just Say NO To Religion"
"Let's All Give Thanks" (for the Godless Gospel project)
"Life Is Good!"
"Love" (words by Robert G. Ingersoll)
"Lucifer's Lament"
"My Father's House"
"No Gods, No Masters" (tribute to Margaret Sanger)
"No Hurry To Die"
"None of the Above"
"Nothing Fails Like Prayer"
"Poor Little Me" (with Broadway composer Charles Strouse)
"Promise of Dawn" (co-written with Juanice Charmaine)
"Reason" (written for the Reason Rally)
"Salt Lake City Blues" (with Steve Benson)
"Solstice Tribute" (new lyrics to "Little Town of Bethlehem")
"Somewhere Over The Paper Moon" (lyrics by Yip Harburg)
"Summers of Love" (poem by Philip Appleman)
"Sunday Morning Blues"
"Thank You, Fauci"
"The Battle of Church & State"
"The Freethinker Blues"
"The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction"
"The Natural World" (for the Godless Gospel project)
"The Time To Be Happy Is Now" (based on Robert G. Ingersoll)
"The Trinity" (words by Robert G. Ingersoll)
"The World Is My Country" (based on Thomas Paine)
"The World's Need" (poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox)
"Time Never Stops"
"Unfaithful"
"We, The People"
"Why BSA?" (co-written with Steve Benson)
"You Can't Win With Original Sin"

Dan composed and produced "The Stay-Away Pope Polka," which was played by radio stations and sung by protest groups across the country when the pope visited America in 1987 and 1993. His 2007 song "It's Only Natural" won a spot on the Madison-Made Project for the Homeless compilation CD.

Dan wrote some of the songs for the Godless Gospel project.

Most of Dan's freethought songs above are available on CD's produced by the Freedom From Religion Foundation: Friendly Neighborhood Atheist, Beware of Dogma, and Adrift on a Star.

Personal

Dan was born in 1949, raised in southern California, and has lived in Madison, Wisconsin since 1985. He has composed more than 200 songs that have been published and/or recorded, working extensively with children's author Joy Berry on children's educational materials. He also contributed word puzzles for Joy's project with Amnesty International and regularly volunteers with the American Red Cross. Dan composed and performed some of the music in Julia Sweeney's play and movie Letting Go of God. In the 1980s he worked as a computer programmer, designing and installing software for railroad dispatchers, and wrote the Foundation's first membership database. Dan plays professional solo piano at clubs and hotels, and in jazz combos and big bands at weddings, receptions and parties. His jazz piano CD "Night At Nakoma" was released in 2008.

Dan speaks fluent Spanish and is studying other languages. He belongs to a number of High-IQ societies, including The Prometheus Society, with an entrance requirement at the 99.997th percentile, and is the creator of Star Anagrams. He is a member of the Lenni Lenape (Delaware Indian) Tribe of Native Americans, and in 1991 edited and published Paradise Remembered, a collection of his Grandfather's stories as a Lenape boy in Indian Territory.

Dan married Annie Laurie Gaylor in 1987 at a feminist/freethought ceremony at Freethought Hall in Sauk City, Wisconsin. He has five children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.