My Story

Hello and welcome to She Seeks Nonfiction! I’m Rebekah. Allow me to introduce myself…

My (Christian) Background (1995-2018)

I spent my first twenty years living a Christian life. I was raised in the conservative Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, and even though I never really believed in God, I was so accustomed to being surrounded by Christians that I attended Grove City College, a small private liberal arts college an hour north of my home in Pittsburgh, PA. I earned my Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Studies with a minor in Design and concentrations in Writing, but to be honest, I felt like I spent most of my time there being preached at. There were mandatory chapel credits and several required religion classes… and even the “normal” classes (for example, editing class) were saturated with Christian ideas.

The Closet Atheist (2016-2018)

To deal with the stress of living a Christian life with an atheist mind, I started this blog in November of 2016, when I was a junior in college. I named it The Closet Atheist, and I “named” myself that, too. No one was to know about my secret atheist blog, so for years I wrote without ever sharing my name, face, college, or location. I was known only as The Closet Atheist, and behind that mask I was able to write however I felt about my stifled life.

Coming Out (2018)

Ironically, but not surprisingly, while I went under the name The Closet Atheist, I was coming out as atheist to the people I knew, one person at a time. Once everyone in my life knew I was an atheist, or even an atheist blogger (I found out the hard way that nothing is private when it’s publicly on the Internet), I felt that The Closet Atheist wasn’t accurate for me or my blog. This was especially the case once I graduated from Grove City in May of 2018 and married my amazing atheist husband Johnathan in November later that same year.

The Curious Atheist (2019-2020)

In May 2019, I officially changed my blog’s name from The Closet Atheist to The Curious Atheist, and I decided to share my real name (and new last initial!)—Rebekah K—on here! I was so happy to finally be thriving as an atheist and living life on my own terms. I had begun to read as much as I could by this point, having read several books arguing for or against the existence of God. As time went on, however, I started feeling more comfortable creating content on more topics than just atheism. I had begun writing in the first place to find solace away from the religion I was drowning in, but now that I was entirely out of the water, I no longer needed that solace.

She Seeks Nonfiction (2020-present)

During my time writing for The Curious Atheist, my appetite for science started running wild. I started learning everything I could about the study of human origins (paleoanthropology), and I discovered the works of Carl Sagan. Soon I was so excited about the natural world and the history of science that I noticed I was barely talking about atheism at all. I still appreciate the importance of calling out religious bigotry and pseudoscience, but I realized that the problem isn’t all religion, it’s religion when it is used as a weapon. I knew that the word “atheist” can scare religious people away, even if those people are progressive.

So here we are. My current blog title, She Seeks Nonfiction, emphasizes the positivity, not the negativity, of my writing. My blog has become my place to write whatever is on my mind, discuss whatever book is in my hands, and encourage everyone to question more than just religion.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State (2022-2025)

After five years of blogging, noted atheist journalist Hemant Mehta, whose YouTube videos prompted me to start my blog in the first place, emailed me in May 2021 asking me to write for him on the Friendly Atheist Blog. I believe it was my work with Hemant on his Patheos blog, and later on OnlySky Media, that made the folks at Americans United for Separation of Church and State take a chance on me.

I became the graphic designer for Americans United for Separation of Church and State in late September of 2022. AU’s mission perfectly combined my passion for human rights and religious freedom. I slowed down my blogging at that time, because my work at AU was a more effective way to spread the word about bigotry and authoritarianism — or so I thought.

Americans United became a hotbed for the very bigotry and authoritarianism I thought I had escaped when I left the church. What started as a dream come true — you can see how I previously described AU on this very page — spiraled into a nightmare when I was removed from the Summit for Religious Freedom that I myself had gushed about by my own former atheist hero, Andrew L. Seidel. This was my punishment for wearing a keffiyeh in support of Palestine to a “religious freedom” conference. My experience at AU culminated in an $11,000 offer for me never to speak ill of them. I declined, and not long after, I left the organization.

If my blog was quiet in 2023 because of Americans United being my avenue for action, it stayed quiet throughout 2024 and into 2025 because I was afraid to speak out and lose my job. Getting through each day was tough enough that I didn’t have the mental energy to read the kinds of books that I read or to conjure up a book review.

What’s next (updated 8/22/25)

Leaving Americans United and sharing my story in full took a huge weight off my shoulders. I still search and apply for graphic design jobs, but I have the time and energy now to dedicate an hour a day to reading. I eagerly await the fall, which is the unrivaled time to read on the porch and write a book review by the light of a candle.