The founder of the hugely popular Christian band Newsboys has revealed that he chose the path of atheism some time ago.

In a guest post published at the Friendly Atheist's Patheos blog, Newsboys co-founding member George Perdikis said: "By 2007, I renounced Christianity once and for all and declared myself an atheist."

Perdikis took the time to explain his decision in his guest post, and said that he felt constrained by the dictates of his former religion. "I always felt uncomfortable with the strict rules imposed by Christianity. All I wanted to do was create and play rock and roll... and yet most of the attention I received was focused on how well I maintained the impossible standards of religion. I wanted my life to be measured by my music, not by my ability to resist temptation."

After leaving the band in 1990, Perdikis said that he took the time to focus on other subjects. He returned to Adelaide in Australia, and pursued several endeavours including home-building, teaching guitar and playing the occasional gigs at bars and clubs. He also got married, and had two daughters from that marriage, which ended in 2003.

Perdikis developed interests in cosmology and science, and said that he became "fascinated by the works of Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lawrence Krauss, Brian Cox, and Richard Dawkins." He also studied human psychology after the end of his marriage.

The former Newsboys member also took the opportunity to take a swipe at the Christian music industry.

"The Christian music scene is populated by many people who act as though they have a direct hotline to a God who supplies them with the answers to the Universe. There seems to be more ego and narcissism amongst Christian musicians than their secular counterparts," he said.