Basic Trope: A religious character makes a Face–Heel Turn as a direct result of losing faith in their religion.
- Straight: Bob used to be a member of a Saintly Church, but after he stops believing in their teachings he descends into a life of crime.
- Exaggerated: Bob used to be a sinless, selfless, dedicated follower of God who spent all his time helping the poor feeding the hungry, but when he stopped believing he became a raging, sociopathic, and irredeemable villain who plots to kill those who are associated with his old church, Eats Babies, tortures kittens, snorts cocaine, and sexually violates anyone.
- Downplayed: Bob used to be a religious Nice Guy, but after an incident that makes him question his beliefs he suddenly stops going to church and has become a bit of a jerk.
- Justified: Bob's religion is so central to his life that when he finds himself unable to believe it anymore, his mind snaps, and he starts lashing out because he doesn't know what else to do and has no concept of good, decent behavior being possible independently of his religion.
- Inverted:
- Bob suddenly becomes nicer to everyone after he stops believing in his religion.
- Bob suddenly becomes meaner to everyone after believing in his religion.
- Heel–Faith Turn
- Subverted: When Bob loses faith in his religion, he becomes very upset and flies into a rage. However, he ultimately calms down and moves on without it permanently affecting his character for the worse.
- Double Subverted: But the calming down and moving on was an act, he's secretly still very torn up about it, to the point that he is secretly plotting to destroy the universe because he doesn't think a world in which his previous beliefs aren't true ought to exist.
- Parodied: Bob leaves his old religion and subscribes to a media geared towards ex-believers, whose articles center around stereotypical Hollywood Atheist antics, such as "What cooking method best suits baby meat?", "Replace morality with cold hard Logic Today", "10 full-proof ways to harass theists", "Raping on a whim and (godless) you"...
- Zig Zagged: (Continuing on from Double Subverted) He eventually accepts that his religion isn't true, until he thinks about the lack of afterlife, which makes him go in a rage, before calming down and accepting the lack of afterlife.
- Averted:
- Bob loses faith in his religion but it doesn't make him turn evil.
- Bob keeps his religious beliefs but becomes evil anyway.
- Bob neither loses his religion nor turns evil.
- Enforced: The writer, who is very devoted to his religious beliefs, wants to prove to viewers that leaving religious faith is unquestionably immoral.
- Lampshaded: "Yup, the bible thumpers always go crazy."
- Invoked: The Corrupter plants seeds of doubt in Bob's faith to turn him evil.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Alice sees that Bob is about to snap as a result of his Crisis of Faith and attempts to calm him down.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "I've heard that some people who have stopped believing in God remain nice people or even do horrible things because of their newfound beliefs, so the author is massively biased."
- Played For Drama: As Pastor Bob's faith wavers, his once saintly church slowly but surely warps into a terrifying cult where the only object of worship is Bob himself.
- Implied: Bob is an unrepentant criminal with a Mysterious Past. When the heroes ransack his lair, attention is drawn to a discarded crucifix necklace.
Back to Faith–Heel Turn
