A man who led a Seventh Day Adventist church until last March when he resigned and said he was going to “try atheism for a year” has announced he no longer believes in God.

“For the next 12 months I will live as if there is no God,” he explained. “I will not pray, read the Bible for inspiration, refer to God as the cause of things or hope that God might intervene and change my own or someone else’s circumstances.”

Ryan Bell was the leader of Hollywood Adventist Church until he was asked to resign by church leaders because of his opposition to Scripture on issues such as creation.

“Not being a pastor for nine months has given me the freedom to not have to believe in something for other people’s sake,” he explained to Religion News Service.

Bell now not only denies the existence of God, he is actively trying to undermine the Scriptures and truth of Christ by claiming it was just made up to fit the view of the leaders at the time.

“It’s probably been a decade since I was convinced about the virgin birth or the historicity of the birth narratives more generally,” Bell wrote. “In fact, Mark doesn’t even have a birth narrative, suggesting that it was invented later to tie the story together.”