Unbelievable? Classic: From Atheist to Catholic with Leah Libresco and Hemant Mehta
Mar 3, 2026
Leah Libresco, a former atheist blogger who converted to Catholicism, and Hemant Mehta, the Friendly Atheist known for secular commentary, discuss Leah’s moral-argument-driven journey. They explore moral realism, virtue ethics, why Catholicism fit her moral framework, sacramental life, reactions from online communities, and the challenges of persuading others.
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Dating Pact Led To Deep Moral Debates
- Leah began attending Mass to keep a dating pact with a Catholic boyfriend and argued with him about moral foundations.
- Those conversations revealed shared moral convictions but different metaphysical grounds, sparking Leah's deeper study of morality.
Virtue Ethics Pushed Her Toward A Moral Agent
- Leah shifted from deontology to virtue ethics and found atheistic frameworks weak at grounding objective moral claims.
- Linking morality to an agent (God) made moral objectivity accessible and solved puzzles about how humans apprehend moral truths.
Catholic Unity Matched Her Moral Responsibility View
- Leah found Catholicism's institutional insistence on unity attractive because it holds members mutually accountable.
- She compared the Church's unity to democratic responsibility and saw schism as a failure of charity.
