Noah McKay was always “at least slightly” more confident than not that God existed.
The philosophy doctoral student at Princeton University recently announced his conversion to Catholicism, but he told EWTN News that he struggled for years with what he saw as uncertainties related to faith, including the problem of evil and the “problem of divine hiddenness.”
McKay is the second Princeton philosophy scholar this year to convert to the Catholic faith; earlier in the summer Joe Schmid announced his own return to the faith after years of having run an agnostic-themed philosophy channel on YouTube.
“I was never an atheist, and I don’t think I was ever agnostic,” McKay told EWTN News. But he experienced profound uncertainties in high school and graduate school, some of which were also related to what he described as “difficulties with the reliability and interpretation of the Bible.”
While he never fully abandoned belief in God, “what firmly convinced me of theism were, first, design arguments based on the fine-tuning of physics for the emergence of life, and, second, the empirical evidence for contemporary Christian miracles,” he said.
“Arguments from consciousness, moral knowledge, and natural beauty also played a role,” he added.
It is perhaps unsurprising that a philosophy scholar would be drawn into the Church in part by scholarly inquiry. Schmid told EWTN News shortly after his conversion, for instance, that “contingency arguments” helped convince him of God’s existence.
McKay, meanwhile, cited “evidence for vindicatory Catholic miracles” as helping lead him to the Catholic Church specifically.
Those miracles “presuppose distinctive teachings of the Catholic Church,” he pointed out, and the evidence for them, he argued, is “as good or better than the evidence for the more generically Christian miracles” in which McKay himself already believed.
He told EWTN News that out of the necessity of consistency he felt he needed to either accept all of those Catholic miracles or reject all of them. “And the evidence was too strong for rejecting all of them to be reasonable!” he said.
The evidence for those miracles wasn’t the only thing that convinced him of the truth of the Catholic faith, he said, but “it did motivate me to look into the history and theology of the Church more carefully,” and the evidence he found for Catholicism was “very strong.”
He urged those considering Catholicism for the first time, or those who are considering returning to it, to start with researching those miracles.
Speaking to Catholic YouTube apologist Cameron Bertuzzi in a recent interview, McKay argued that “if you already accept that Christianity is true, the inference to Catholicism is irresistible.”
He admitted that his decision to join the Church caused his close friends and family “distress” given his Protestant background.
But “I think Catholicism — if you’re fully informed, if you’re really considering all of the evidence — I think Catholicism is basically going to be irresistible,” he said….
From EWTN News
Watch the interview of Noah McKay.
Catholic life is flourishing at Princeton. As Fr. Zachary Swantek, the Catholic chaplain there, noted, “Our numbers both for Sunday and daily Mass have doubled in recent years. In 2019, we had 40 students participating in Bible studies. Now we have 40 students leading Bible studies on campus, and more than 250 students participating in them weekly in their dorms.” For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, the Holy Spirit is clearing moving among young adults, sometimes more on secular college campuses than on many Catholic campuses.
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/faith-in-the-ivy-league-catholic
Well, since Princeton kicked its Presbyterian founders to the curb, at least God is still doing something at Princeton. (And, they were real Presbyterians, not the confused ones of today, like Senator Chris Coons and Wannabe Senator James Talarico.) Princeton is more Hobbes than Calvin. I guess it was just predestined to happen. Total depravity, almost.
Very funny, John Knocks. I tried using the “thumbs” system. But it didn’t work. Finally, after several tries, I see that my finger slipped, frustratingly, and a “thumbs down” appeared. So sorry! The editor should get rid of this dumb “thumbs” system. It doesn’t work.
Whether it has staying power remains to be seen. Gen Z tries things out and abandons them like a gym membership or a streaming subscription. Catholicism isn’t any different in their minds. They are trying it out, which is good. Will they still be here in two or three years?
And what happens after they leave the school enclave and enter the dystopian wasteland of diocesan parishes where parish life, catechesis and liturgy are so awful as to turn the stomach of any knowledgeable, dedicated, commited, ardent Catholic?
Good thing Boomers and others don’t try things out and abandon them a gym membership.
Honestly, can you not see and acknowledge some very good things God is doing in the lives of young people today?
Will all persevere? No. Will some? Yes. And, that ‘s true of every generation.
Don’t take my word for it. Take our Lord’s. (Matt. 13:1-23)
And, for those who keep the faith, we should be grateful.
““…if you already accept that Christianity is true, the inference to Catholicism is irresistible.” ” This is truly the leading of the Holy Spirit, because by some objective markers Catholicism is very resistible. I am thinking mainly of the terrible damage done by homosexual clerics. Yet I have to confess the very positive influence of good clerics must be making a very positive mark on the souls of many people, and this is very good news. The secular world has little to offer earnest souls seeking Truth, and it is no surprise that it is on secular campuses the faith is being born in weary hearts. Noah McKay is proof that apologetics are an evangelical tool for spreading the Catholic faith, or shall we say, an effective tool for proselytizing.
Princeton has a noted faithful, orthodox “Catholic prince” named Professor Robert George– a famous American legal scholar, political philosopher, and public intellectual. He has held his ground against modernist secularists and atheists at that university for many years. He was born in 1955, the same year as Pope Leo, and should be near retirement, unfortunately. Perhaps he has had some influence to help Catholic converts.
Dr. George, I didn’t know you read the California Catholic Daily.
I do appreciate all you’ve done.
Not a good idea to tell your name to all the “fruitcakes,” “nutcases” and “goofballs” of Krazy Kalifornia. Protect your family and loved ones, also.
Krazy Kalifornia, So you think it’s better to use the real name of someone else? Robert George is a real person.
If someone doesn’t want to use their name, they should make one up. I suspect your parents aren’t Mr. and Mrs. Kalifornia and had you baptized as “Krazy.” Pen names? Sure. Using someone else’s name? Not so much.
Is your name, “since you can’t post anonymously?” The priest who baptized you had a pretty long name to remember. You didn’t see that the comment was about Dr. George. So what? Hey, did you know that he is happily married to a Jewish lady named Cindy? They had an interfaith wedding, witrh a Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi, at a chapel at Harvard University. Both are Harvard grads.