My name is Martin. I’m a Catholic father, husband and doctor who came to believe in Jesus Christ in November 2015. My conversion to Christ was purely intellectual at first. In medicine we are trained to form our opinions and make decisions based on the best available evidence. My journey started when, for the first time in my life, I applied the same principle to my religious beliefs. Hence, the name of the blog.

I grew up in a Latin American Catholic-majority country, with a rich Catholic history and culture. Despite that, I grew up as a cultural, non-practicing Catholic with a secular worldview.

I came to the United States to further my medical education. Here, my secularism was reaffirmed. The funny thing though, is that eventually I started attending Mass with some regularity, thanks to my wife who was raised Catholic here in the US. Although going to Mass gave me a sense of belonging, I was just going through the motions without conviction.

When our first child was born and we had her baptized, that’s when the question hit me: why would I raise my daughter Catholic? I mean, Catholicism is not a race or a culture, it is a religion; a religion I didn’t really fully believe in. We don’t have to be Catholic, so why be one? And why join any religion anyway? Aren’t religions just cultural beliefs about God dependent on geographic location?

Right at the same time, my beliefs about God were being challenged at work. As a cancer doctor, my daily experience with the pain and suffering of my patients made me question the existence of God. Why would a loving God allow such suffering? Common answers like “only God knows” were not enough for me any more.

These circumstances in my life challenged me to think critically about God and religion. But first they made me realize that my religious beliefs at that point in my life were merely the result of my own version of Catholicism based on my own ideas.

My beliefs resembled what sociologists have described as ‘moralistic therapeutic deism‘. Basically, be a good person and I’ll go to heaven like everyone (except people like Hitler). It was all feelings. I had no concrete evidence and had no philosophical or theological basis to support any of my beliefs. I just believed.

I felt that I owed it to myself and my children to know the facts and the reasons for my beliefs. This time I didn’t want to make any assumptions, so I started from scratch and went after the evidence for God.

Once convinced of the existence of God, I investigated the evidence for Christianity, which led me to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Finally, and most unexpectedly, the evidence brought me back to full communion with the Catholic Church.

From that moment on, my life changed dramatically into a new life – one filled with extraordinary meaning, joy and peace.

This blog is about the intellectual journey that brought me to faith and the great impact it has had in my life. I spent countless hours reading and listening to scientists, philosophers, historians, apologists and theologians. I went over the evidence and arguments for and against God, Christianity and the Catholic Church.

Faith through reason may sound like an oxymoron to many (as it did to me), but I discovered that it’s not. I learned that faith is really an intellectual virtue; an assent of the mind to God’s revelation. Prior to that we must determine that God does really exist, and that He has actually revealed something. For that we must examine the evidence.

My intent is to first present the evidence and main arguments that led me to Christ and His Church. Then with that foundation I’ll share how my faith has transformed my life, and that of my family, in a way I could have never imagined.

I dedicate this blog to my daughters. Before the idea of going public with the blog, I had started writing letters to them with everything I had learned on this journey, as a sort of spiritual will and testament. I wanted them to know what we believe and more importantly understand why believe it.

The idea of going public came up one day while I was at Church in Adoration to the Blessed Sacrament. Many people leave the faith for different reasons, but at the core lies a lack of knowledge and understanding of Catholic Christianity.

My hope with this blog is to ignite people’s curiosity about the reasons for their faith, so that they can deepen their knowledge and strengthen their relationship with Jesus Christ. Ultimately, we can’t follow who we don’t know, and we can’t know that which we don’t understand.