I learnt about Joe Schmid’s conversion to Catholicism while standing in line for confession. The news distracted me from my examination of conscience as I frantically texted a friend asking whether it could possibly be true. Were they quite certain that this wasn’t an AI hoax, or some elaborate prank?
Upon being reassured that the story was real, I was overcome with emotion. While I hadn’t followed Schmid’s work all too closely, I knew enough about him to feel intimidated by his extraordinary intellect. Having grown up Catholic, Schmid became an atheist in high school before eventually reverting to a cautious agnosticism. By the age of 21, he was already publishing peer-reviewed academic articles with titles like “Existential inertia and the Aristotelian proof”.
