- What are the most common reasons that cause Christians to lose their faith and turn to atheism, agnosticism or skepticism? - Are these reasons only effective against young Christians? What about pastors, priests, elders, evangelists, missionaries, etc.? Are long-time committed Christians also vulnerable to have their faith "shaken" by these reasons? I think these are important questions to answer, especially with so many atheist activists spreading skepticism and atheism nowadays. Wikipedia has an informative [list of atheist activists and educators](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_atheist_activists_and_educators) . There are also the ["Four Horsemen of the New Atheism"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Atheism#%22Four_Horsemen%22) , namely, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, and Sam Harris. In social media we also find lots of content producers who spread agnosticism, atheism and skeptical ways of thinking. For example, on YouTube I'm familiar with [Genetically Modified Skeptic](https://www.youtube.com/c/GeneticallyModifiedSkeptic/featured) (458K subscribers), [CosmicSkeptic](https://www.youtube.com/c/CosmicSkeptic) (446K subscribers), [The Atheist Experience](https://www.youtube.com/user/TheAtheistExperience) (365K subscribers), [Rationality Rules](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqZMgLgGlYAWvSU8lZ9xiVg) (296K subscribers), [AronRa](https://www.youtube.com/c/AronRa) (263K subscribers) and [Bart D. Ehrman](https://www.youtube.com/c/bartdehrman) (83K subscribers). Here is [a list with the top 50 atheist YouTube channels](https://blog.feedspot.com/atheist_youtube_channels/) . ____________ EDIT: [For legacy reasons.] This question originally had a third dot point which was removed to make it more focused. However, before the question was closed a user managed to post an answer where a big chunk of it addresses this third point. Therefore, I'm keeping it below for legacy reasons only. Future answerers may feel free to completely ignore it if they wish. > - What measures (if any) are Christian churches taking to counteract these reasons for deconversion? Do any Christian churches or organizations teach people how to have an unshakable faith, even in the face of the most challenging objections?

Recent personal experiences have made a close relative question their Christian beliefs to a far extent. They still believe in the possibility of an all-knowing God but question specific characteristics of Protestant-Christianity such as Priesthood. They strongly believe every Christian should have equal and direct access to God, preferring to align towards agnosticism. From the perspective of protestant-catholicism (Anglicanism) can this individual be said to be an unbeliever?

Is acting as if God exist while not actually believing that God exists is functionally identical or is that a sacrilege? To rephrase: is it feasible/possible/morally right to stick one finger in to test the waters or you accept Christianity in it's entirety and there is no middle ground? The reason I'm asking is that from the agnostic fence I've been sitting for the last 20-30 years of my life it seems that the satanic crowd have become increasingly active in the last decade or so and I want to have nothing in common with the Anton le Vei wannabees so am pondering my options spiritually-wise.