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CatholicOutlook.com
BackupWelcomeMy name is Gary Hoge (which rhymes with vogue). Welcome to my website! If you want to learn moreabout the Catholic faith, you’ve come to the right place. I’m a convert to Catholicism from EvangelicalProtestantism, and before I became a follower of Jesus Christ in 1986 I was an atheist. So I’vecovered a lot of theological ground in my life. I’m not a scholar – and I don’t pretend to be – but I’velearned a lot along the way, and I’d like to share it with you. If you’re interested, you can read moreabout me here:* My journey from atheism to Evangelical Protestantism to Catholicism* Pictures of my reception into the Catholic ChurchMissionMy goal for this site is simply to try to explain the Catholic faith in a way that’s easy to understand, andto explain why I think it makes more sense than the alternatives. So, if you’re a Protestant whowonders why his Catholic friends confess their sins to a priest and kneel before the Eucharist, or if you’re a Catholic who wonders the same thing, this site is for you. Together, we’ll cut through themyths and the misconceptions, and spell out as plainly as possible what the Catholic Church reallyteaches. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you learn here.A Special Note to ProtestantsIf you’re a Protestant, there’s one thing you need to bear in mind if you want to understand theCatholic faith: when it comes to theology, Catholics and Protestants don’t speak the same language.Oh, they use the same words, but they use them in different ways, and that often leads to a lot of unneccessary confusion and misunderstanding. Part of this is simply the result of the two groups livingapart from each other for the past 500 years, but part of it is also the result of the fact that, as myfriend Mark Shea says, “Catholic theology has an incorrigible knack for obscuring marvelous insightsin confusing terminology.” That’s a pity, but we won’t let it stop us.In addition to explaining what Catholics believe, I’m also going to explain why they believe it, and why Ithink Catholic theology makes sense. I’m going to be asking you to use your common sense. Simplyput, common sense is hearing hoofbeats behind you and knowing that although it could be a zebra,it’s most likely a horse. So what I’m going to try to do is to show that when all the evidence fromScripture, history, and reason is considered, the Catholic position is the one most likely to be right.In order to demonstrate all of this to you, I will appeal to Scripture and try to show that Catholictheology is faithful to the text, and to the context, and that it makes more sense than the alternativeexplanations. I’ll also appeal to the writings of the early Christians, because they bear witness to thefaith that they received from the apostles. If I can show that Catholic teaching is consistent with whatthey say the apostles taught them, then I think that is strong evidence for the truth of that teaching.What I hope to show is that to consistently reject the Catholic position is to consistently choose theimprobable path.
 
Something for Everyone
Originally, I thought I was creating a website that would explain the Catholic faith to Protestants, butover the years I’ve heard from many Catholics who have told me that they, too, have benefitted fromwhat I’ve written here. So, now I think of this site as a guide for anyone who wants to learn more aboutthe Catholic faith. I cover many topics, from the papacy to Scripture to geocentrism (yes,geocentrism). Be sure to check out my dialogues; they’re a lot of fun. Also, don’t miss the manywonderful cartoons, courtesy of “Reverend Fun”. So take a look around and explore wherever your curiosity takes you. And may the Lord Jesus bless you!
My Conversion Store - How I went from being an Atheist, to a Baptist, to a Catholic
by Gary HogeWhen I was a child, my Father taught me the basics about God, and he read to me and my brother from a child’s narrative version of the Bible. I loved listening to those stories, and looking at thebeautiful illustrations, but somehow, I never really developed much faith in God. Perhaps it had to dowith the fact that I thought going to church was incredibly boring, or perhaps it had to do with theinfluence of my mother, who was an agnostic. Although she never overtly discouraged me frombelieving in God, thanks to her I learned very early in life that some people didn’t. And it seemed to meas I got older that it was usually the smartest people who didn’t believe in God.I don’t know at what age I finally lost what little faith I had, but by the time I was in high school, Iconsidered myself an atheist. I suppose it would probably be more accurate to say I was an agnostic,because if you pushed me I probably would have admitted that I couldn’t be absolutely certain thatGod didn’t exist, but I really believed that He didn’t. I thought that religion was for emotional weaklingswho couldn’t handle reality. As far as I was concerned, man had created God in his own image manycenturies ago in order to explain how the universe worked. But then we developed science, and westarted to understand the natural processes that govern the universe. As time progressed, and wemade advances in such fields as astronomy, physics, and biology, it seemed to me that we had lessand less need to appeal to some “God” to explain things. I could forsee the day when we finallyunderstood enough of the mechanics of the material world to do without God entirely. I longed for thatday, because I thought the world would be a much better place without religion. Better for me, anyway.I wanted to do what I wanted to do, and I didn’t like being told I was a sinner and that some of thethings I was doing were wrong. What right did these people have to judge me?But my attitude began to change during the dismal and dreary Winter of 1986. I was a college studentat that time, attending Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Virginia. For the first time, I began to realize thatthere was a dark side to my atheist philosophy, and that in some very real ways it was a double-edgedsword. I thought it had served me well in the past by freeing me from the constraints of religion so Icould live as I pleased, but now I was beginning to feel that living as I pleased wasn’t really all thatpleasing. In fact, it seemed kind of empty and pointless. For some reason that I couldn’t explain, Ibegan to grow restless and dissatisfied. I wanted something more, but I didn’t know what. I guess Iwanted some meaning in my life. After all, I believed that humans were just biological accidents, theresult of millions of random forces coming together just right to spontaneously create life. We live, wegrow, we die, and then we simply cease to exist. In the end, what’s the point? In the past I hadn’tnoticed these things, probably because I was too busy seeking my own pleasure. But it seemed as if there were some sort of inexorable law of nature at work. I found that the more I had, the more Iwanted; and the more I got, the less satisfying it was. It was like a cruel joke, and I found myself sinking into despair. Outwardly, I had everything; inwardly, I had nothing. I began to wonder if I wouldever be happy again.
 
Then one day I found myself sitting in a fast-food restaurant eating a bowl of chili. Suddenly, a singlethought flashed through my mind: “What about God?” I had no idea where that thought came from, butI pondered it seriously for the first time in my life. There was a glimmer of hope in that thought, the firsthope I had seen in a long time, and it flashed through my mind like a beacon. It occurred to me thatmany people found meaning in their lives from a relationship with God, and I was just desperateenough to consider the possibility. Of course, I didn’t want to embrace the idea of God just to cheer myself up, but I wondered, what if there’s really something to it? What if it’s real? I decided right thenand there to find out. My roommate was a Christian who attended a small Baptist church just outsideof town, and I decided to go with him to church the following Sunday. I imagine that my sudden desireto go to church must have been quite a surprise to him, but he did his best not to show it. He probablydidn’t want to scare me off.When the appointed day arrived, I found myself sitting in Gateway Baptist Church, listening to a manby the name of Dewey Weaver, who was the living embodiment of every stereotype I ever had of aSouthern Baptist preacher. His accent, his hairstyle, and the way he waved his Bible in the air werethe very things I used to make fun of. I felt like an idiot for being there. What was I thinking? I justhoped that my friends wouldn’t find out. But there must have been something attractive in what Pastor Weaver said, because the next week, there I was again. In fact I kept coming back week after week.After a while I no longer noticed Pastor Weaver’s style, and I liked his sense of humor, but moreimportantly, the message he preached showed me exactly why I was in despair: It was because I wasa sinner in desperate need of a savior. I’d heard that before, of course, and dismissed it as bunch of foolish theobabble, but this time it was beginning to register. Jesus wasn’t just a misunderstooditinerant preacher from Galilee mouthing a bunch of fluffy platitudes about being nice, nor was hesome sort of nationalistic Jewish rabble-rouser who ran afoul of the Roman oppressors. No, accordingto Pastor Weaver, He was God in the flesh, who loved me so much that he laid down His life to makeatonement for my sins, so that I could be forgiven.I was thinking about this gospel message one night as I was going to sleep, and for the first time in mylife it all made sense. I was struck by the logic of it, and by how well it explained the human condition,especially my own. And I realized that somehow I had crossed the line from unbelief to belief. I didn’tknow exactly when it had happened, but I knew that I believed. I truly believed that strange, foolishmessage that I had once wondered how anyone in his right mind could believe. And now, lookingback, it all seemed so obvious, and I wondered how I could have been so blind.That night I asked Jesus to forgive me for my sins, and I asked Him to come into my heart, just asPastor Weaver had explained. I pledged to follow the Lord from that day forward, as best I could.A few days later I descended on the local Christian bookstore, to get some materials to help meunderstand this new faith. I liked the idea of Jesus very much, but I still didn’t care much for theconcept of organized religion. So naturally, the book How to Be a Christian without Being Religious, byFritz Ridenour, jumped out at me and I snatched it right up. I also bought D. James Kennedy’s books,Why I Believe, and Truths that Transform. These, and some others, formed the foundation for my newChristian theology, which naturally enough, resembled the Calvinistic and Evangelical theology of Kennedy, Ridenour, and others whose books I read. I also read many apologetics books, like JoshMcDowell’s Evidence that Demands a Verdict and Paul Little’s Know Why You Believe, books thatexplained the rational basis for the truth of Christianity. It was important to me to know why I believedwhat I did, both for my own benefit, and also because I wanted to be able to defend myself againstpeople who would assume, as I once did, that if I were a Christian I must be a dim-wit.I managed to graduate from college, and about a year later God blessed me with the best wife a mancould ask for. Several years later He blessed me again with a wonderful son. I read the Bible, andeven learned a little Greek so I could read the New Testament in its original language. But one thing I
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