{"id":341,"date":"2012-06-20T10:17:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-20T10:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/author-of-atheist-blog-announces-she-will-become-catholic\/"},"modified":"2012-06-20T10:17:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-20T10:17:00","slug":"author-of-atheist-blog-announces-she-will-become-catholic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/06\/author-of-atheist-blog-announces-she-will-become-catholic\/","title":{"rendered":"Author of atheist blog announces she will become Catholic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Denver, Colo., Jun 20, 2012 \/ 04:17 am (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Blogger Leah Libresco, known for writing about ethics and religion from her perspective as an atheist, announced June 18 that she now believes in God and intends to enter the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cFor several years, a lot of my friends have been telling me I had an inconsistent and unsustainable philosophy,\u201d the Washington, D.C.-based author of the \u201cUnequally Yoked\u201d blog wrote in a post announcing her intention to convert.<\/p>\n

\tThe 22-year-old Yale graduate says she came to believe \u201cthat the Moral Law wasn\u2019t just a Platonic truth, abstract and distant. It turns out I actually believed it was some kind of Person, as well as Truth. And there was one religion that seemed like the most promising way to reach back to that living Truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWhen I was talking to a post-modernist friend afterwards,\u201d Libresco said to CNA on June 19, \u201cI told him, 'I guess you were right. (The concept of) \u201cTruth\u201d was a gateway drug.'\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cHe replied, not very much in jest: 'Told you so.'\u201d<\/p>\n

\tIn recent years, the writer and researcher had \u2013 despite her atheism \u2013 developed an interest in Christian accounts of morality, developed by authors like C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, and Alasdair MacIntyre. Her blog, \u201cUnequally Yoked,\u201d chronicled her engagement with Christian theological claims.<\/p>\n

\tRaised in a non-religious household, Libresco explained in a biographical statement that she \u201cmet smart Christians for the first time\u201d during college. She was \u201cwas ready to cross-examine them\u201d from her perspective as an atheist, but found there were \u201csome big gaps in my defense of my own positions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI realized I didn\u2019t have a clear enough idea of what Christianity entailed to be able to imagine a world where it was true. I felt embarrassed and told my friends to take their best shot at convincing me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThrough her blog, the atheist thinker looked to test her arguments against belief, seeking out \u201cpeople to ask me tough questions and force me to burn off the dross in my philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThe odyssey was personal as well as philosophical, involving a romantic relationship with \u201cone of these smart Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI talked with deacons, priests, and Dominicans and attended RCIA classes \u2013 until I got kicked out,\u201d she wrote in the biographical statement, composed before her conversion.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cNeither my boyfriend or I looked likely to switch teams in the near future, and, after two years of dating, we were at the point where a relationship that was incompatible with marriage seemed foolish, so, regretfully, we had to split up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tBut she continued \u201cseriously exploring Christian claims,\u201d in light of her own belief in philosophical concepts including objective morality. Her blog featured a \u201ctest\u201d in which atheists and Christians swapped roles, composing answers to questions from the perspective of the opposing worldview.<\/p>\n

\tLibresco's atheism finally ended after a recent Yale alumni debate, where a friend \u201cprodded me on where I thought moral law came from in my metaphysics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI talked about morality as though it were some kind of Platonic form, remote from the plane that humans existed on. He wanted to know where the connection was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tPressed to define the connection between humanity and the moral order, Libresco came up short: \u201cI don\u2019t know. I\u2019ve got nothing.\u201d Then she remarked: \u201cI guess Morality just loves me or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tIn Monday's blog entry, the \u201cUnequally Yoked\u201d author said her writings, hosted by the Patheos website, would move from the service's \u201catheist channel\u201d to its \u201cCatholic channel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tLibresco said she had been using the Church's Liturgy of the Hours, as well as the ancient \u201cBreastplate of Saint Patrick,\u201d for most of her \u201cprayer attempts.\u201d Despite lingering \u201cconfusion\u201d about some Catholic teachings, Libresco has begun RCIA classes at a Washington, D.C. parish.<\/p>\n

\tThe former atheist summed up her feelings about her announcement with a quotation from Tom Stoppard's play \u201cArcadia\u201d: \u201cIt\u2019s the best possible time to be alive, when almost everything you thought you knew is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denver, Colo., Jun 20, 2012 \/ 04:17 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Blogger Leah Libresco, known for writing about ethics and religion from her perspective as an atheist, announced June 18 that she now believes in God and intends to enter the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

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