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James McCartney

Born in 1938, James McCartney has lived in Northern Ireland for most of his life, and has resided in Belfast since 1982. He graduated from Queen's University, Belfast in Applied Chemistry in 1959, has been an associate of both the Society of Dyers and Colourists and the Royal Institute of Chemistry, and has been a fellow of the British Institute of Management. Married in 1962, he and his wife have two fine sons and three beautiful and clever grand-daughters. After following a career in the textile processing industry in technical and managerial capacities, he switched to an information technology career in 1981, again in technical and managerial work. From time to time McCartney writes technical articles for the press in both industries. Self-employed since 2003 in repairing and restoring fine and antique porcelain and pottery ornaments, McCartney finally retired in 2016.


Published on the Secular Web


Kiosk Article

Why I am an Apostate

In this largely autobiographical account of why he is now an apostate, James McCartney reflects on the difference between a mere skeptic and former believer who undergoes a kind of deconversion over time. McCartney recounts how his first school teacher, his diligence at Presbyterian Sunday School, and a poem by Robert Burns led him to reject the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and those of other churches like it.