Prominent Atheist Blogger Becomes Catholic

To the world, Leah Libresco was a prominent atheist blogger for the religion website Patheos. In a single blog post, she had become a Catholic.

Serving as an example that some opinions can still be swayed in the days of partisan divides, Libresco said that after debating for years with “smart Christians,” she’s chosen to become one. She is attending Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) classes to become Roman Catholic.

CNN reports that Libresco, whose blog was formerly titled “Unequally Yoked: A geeky atheist picks fights with her Catholic boyfriend,” made the decision based on questions of morality and how a person finds a moral compass.

“I had one thing that I was most certain of, which is that morality is something we have a duty to,” the former atheist blogger told CNN. “”And it is external from us. And when push came to shove, that is the belief I wouldn’t let go of. And that is something I can’t prove.”

An argument with a friend about religion on Palm Sunday sparked her toward her conversion from atheist blogger to Catholic initiate.

“I believed that the Moral Law wasn’t just a Platonic truth, abstract and distant,” she wrote on her post announcing her conversion. “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.”

MSNBC reports that Libresco blogged for the Atheist portion of the Pantheos website. Her blog will now be moved over to the Patheos Catholic channel. The Patheos site is used for discussion and finding information on different faiths.In addition to Patheos, Libresco has also blogged for The Huffington Post.

The former atheist blogger said she wasn’t totally sold on all aspects of Church teaching, such as on homosexuality, but still was preparing for baptism.

While she’s mostly received support, not everyone is happy with her conversion.

Another atheist blogger, Hemant Mehta, said that Libresco’s conversion is a “one-off thing” and not something that signals any trend in atheism.

“The trends are very clear, the conversions from Catholicism to atheism are much more likely to happen than the other way around,” he told CNN.

(Photo courtesy of CNN.com)