Atheists and Agnostics Turning Catholic?!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
    An interesting phenomenon is taking place: some former atheists and agnostics who seriously investigate Christianity are becoming Catholic — not Protestant.
    Now, before anyone gets upset at that, it does not mean that most atheists or agnostics are becoming Catholic. In my experience, these people are quite reluctant to give up their beliefs - or lack of them.
    We are also not trying to say that every intellectual seeker of religion reaches the same conclusion.
    But we are seeing recent converts who were compelled to approach religion through history, philosophy and evidence encountering Catholicism... and discovering their faith in The Church.

1. From the simplistic To Bigger Questions
    Serious skeptics eventually confront questions atheism or agnosticism alone do not easily settle:

- Why does anything exist?
- Can objective morality exist without God?
- Why can human reason discover truth?
- Did Jesus really rise from the dead?
- If Christianity IS true, did Christ establish a Church of His design for man?

    These kinds of questions are rarely answered in one fell swoop - it usually takes a long time to come to the conclusion that there is a God, after all. And once someone becomes convinced that God exists, the question changes from, "Does God exist?" to...

«What did God reveal, and how?»

2. Protestant Fragmentation
    Once someone reaches that stage, the next question that usually arises is:

« Which Christianity is the one?»

     And the seeker soon discovers, if they didn't know already, that there are really two forms – Catholicism and Protestantism.

Then to muddy the waters even further, this person discovers that there is almost an uncountable number of different churches that fall under the broad category of, “Protestantism.” 
    So it must be made clear that there is no such thing as a, “Protestant church...” you won't find one with a sign out front that says that.
    Instead, Protestantism is not even close to being a unified theological system. Lutherans, Calvinists, Baptists, Anglicans, Methodists, Pentecostals, Anabaptists and thousands of independent churches all have their own version of things, and they generally disagree on everything from baptism, salvation, the Eucharist, to predestination, church authority and biblical interpretation.
Especially biblical interpretation.

    This may lead an intellectually minded convert to then ask:

«They all tell us that the Bible is the final authority, but how can sincere Christians using the same Bible reach so many contradictory doctrines?»

    But Catholicism responds differently: Christ did not leave a book; He established a Church.

3. What about the Bible?    
    The problem is that all these denominations DON'T use the same Bible. They each have the version they use and wish to promote...while some print their own version.
    But the Bible did not arrive in innumerable versions, and it did not come with its own table of contents. It also didn't fall from the sky in one piece, and Jesus never left any kind of book.
    In fact, what we call the Bible was compiled and first produced as a handwritten volume by a Catholic priest name St. Jerome, who was the secretary of Pope Damasus I. The work on translating into Latin, and compiling all the old books and apostolic writings (73 works in total) began around 382 AD and was completed in 405 AD.
    So the writings in the Bible were inspired BY God – but it was all put together and made available in one physical work by men of the Catholic Church.
    Before then, however, The early Catholic Church existed well before the New Testament was completely finished and compiled. Those early Christians preserved the writings of the Apostles, defended the faith against heresies and eventually recognized the biblical canon, aka, the, “table of contents.”
    This raises a difficult question for those who wish to claim they adhere strictly to Scripture, known as sola scriptura, or “Bible only”.....

«If Scripture alone is the infallible authority, does Scripture itself provide an infallible list of which books belong in Scripture?»

    The fact is – it doesn't. Nowhere does it indicate that. That is because the Bible is really a compilation of many works - a library, really - both ancient and starting a few decades after Christ. So there couldn't really be a list of that kind, UNTIL IT WAS PUT TOGETHER.
    The Bible was compiled by the early Catholic Church through a series of episcopal councils, where bishops gathered to determine the definitive scriptural canon (contents). To guide believers in the true teachings of God and Christ, these councils relied on a pre-existing foundation: the oral tradition and living authority of the Church itself, which predated the Bible by almost four centuries.
    That true teaching was primarily done through oral means, through the old Hebrew scriptures, and the use of some few scattered written, apostolic works. As a whole that true teaching is known as Sacred Tradition, to differentiate it from the Sacred Scripture (Bible) which came later.
    Therefore, the Church rightly maintains that Scripture (which the Church itself compiled into a complete volume), apostolic Tradition (which was taught by the Church before there WAS a Bible), and the Church's teaching authority as the original church all work together.

4. Catholicism --> link to historical continuity of Christianity
    Okay... wait... did I just say that the Catholic Church is the original church? YES. It was not the same Church you see today, of course, since it has been in existence since Christ set it into motion! But it still teaches what Christ taught His Apostles through Sacred Tradition. So if the Catholic Church is really the original church that Christ intended - how does Protestantism come into the picture?
    Through one man: Martin Luther. Born in 1483, Luther appeared in the early sixteenth century to initiate what is called, “the Protestant Reformation,” which was a secular-religious movement that separated from the Catholic Church and ultimately split into the countless sects of Protestantism we see today.
    But Christianity had already existed for roughly 1,500 years by that time.
    Without Protestants.
    And the early Christian church was established very soon after Christ initiated it. An entire book of the Bible, (called the “Acts of the Apostles”), gives us a glimpse of that. And that early Church had bishops, priests, baptism, the Eucharist, councils, creeds and apostolic succession... all beginning within the first apostolic decades after Christ's ascension to heaven.
    So the historical question becomes:
«What Church existed before the Reformation?»
    And the answer is simple: there is only one - The Catholic Church, aka, Catholicism.

    It is the ONLY church that can rightly trace its continuity from that ancient apostolic Church right down to our time..., rather than presenting itself as a sixteenth-century upstart.

5. RECENT CONVERTS
    This atheist-to-Catholic conversion is not merely theoretical, either. It is happening.
    Recent reports are showing that growing numbers of adults are becoming Catholic converts, including young people who previously identified as agnostic, atheist or non-religious.

- Writer Christopher Beha is just one example. He has publicly discussed his journey from atheism and agnosticism toward Christianity and finally to Catholicism.
- Actor Shia LaBeouf also entered the Catholic Church after a period of spiritual searching.
- Joe Schmid, a popular YouTube vlogger shared his testimony of converting to Catholicism.
- I have also seen Josh Pray, the hyperbolic, black comedian, making the same journey. He says that after openly coming to understand the Church and its teachings, he is now, at least, internally - a Catholic.
    These examples do not prove that atheists prefer Catholicism. What they demonstrate is that Catholicism continues to attract people who were not raised Catholic, but who deliberately investigated a deeper understanding of Christianity.

6. Not About Which Church Has the Best, “Preachers”
    For an evidence-driven seeker, the deeper question is:

«"If Jesus Christ founded a Church, what should that Church look like?"»

Should Christianity consist of thousands of competing interpretations, each clamoring for your attention, trying to get you to sign up?

Or,... should Christ's only Church possess:

- apostolic succession;
- historical continuity;
- sacramental worship;
- authoritative teaching;
- a recognizable connection to the early Christians...even to Christ himself?

    If you say yes, it should, then we can clearly state that Catholicism has the latter...and is the only one that can say that.

Conclusion
    The strongest Catholic argument to an atheist or agnostic is not:

"Catholics are smarter, or better, or came first, etc....."

No, it is this:

"Follow the evidence wherever it leads...."

Start with God.
Then investigate Jesus.
Then investigate the Resurrection.
Then investigate the Apostles.
Then investigate the early Church.
Then investigate apostolic succession, the Eucharist, the biblical canon and the history of Christianity.

Eventually, the real question becomes unavoidable:

«If Jesus Christ really founded but one Church, should I join a community founded 15 centuries or more later, or, should I investigate the only Church that has continuity with the Apostles...and ultimately with Christ himself?»

    For some intellectually serious atheists and agnostics, that investigation has led them — not merely to Christianity — but all the way to the altar of a Catholic Church....

Researched and edited from an article at the Catholic Faith Guardian.
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