Claims extracted
20
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 20 hedged
("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
97/100
The Free Press's corrections and
hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Education
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Joe Schmid, 26, has spent years arguing that there is no God.
asserted
Schmid → spend → years
Or at least, that you can’t prove He’s up there.
asserted
He → prove → ?
As a professional philosopher, he’d devoted his career to writing articles like “Simply Unsuccessful: The Neoplatonic Proof of God’s Existence,” and blog posts like “A Failed Demonstration of God’s Existence.”
asserted
he → devote → Existence
He even co
asserted
He → co → ?
-wrote a book in 2022 defending the niche theory of existential inertia, the idea that there need not be an outside force—i.e., God—compelling the universe to exist.
asserted
universe → - → inertia
But recently, he’s changed his mind, or his mind was changed, anyway.
asserted
mind → change → mind
“Do you mind if we pray?” he asked me this week.
asserted
he → mind → me
We were at a restaurant right off Princeton’s campus, where Schmid is studying to get his PhD.
asserted
Schmid → study → campus
He wasn’t the only newly anointed Catholic at the table.
asserted
He → anoint → table
Noah McKay, 27, is another doctoral student in the same department, and he converted about six months ago.
asserted
he → convert → department
He and Schmid had just come from Mass.
asserted
He → come → ?
They bowed their heads, and when they were done giving thanks, we all dug into a summer hummus board, sans feta cheese, since Princeton’s Gen Z philosopher-Catholics are both vegans, too.
asserted
Catholics → bow → cheese
I’d taken the train to Princeton because I wanted to find out what’s in the water in New Jersey.
asserted
what → take → Jersey
I assumed philosophy was a field where reason trumps faith, and that anyone who thinks about it long and hard enough, in the halls of the progressive Ivy League, will come to the conclusion that there is no Creator.
asserted
who → assume → conclusion
I thought postmodern academia had made everyone believe in nothing.
asserted
everyone → think → nothing
Did these grad students study their way into believing in God, or was the intervention more divine than that?
asserted
intervention → study → that
And does it have something to do with America’s much-vaunted “Catholic boom”?
asserted
it → have → boom
Both these gentlemen were clean-cut—polos, khakis, a leather messenger bag—and clearly brilliant.
asserted
gentlemen → cut → ?
They talked fast and opined on the finer points of magisterial doctrine from the 18th century, between bites of vegan corn ravioli.
asserted
They → talk → ravioli
They’ve both been studying and debating apologetics for years, and met each other a few years ago at a conference, before they were students at Princeton together.
asserted
they → study → Princeton
The Aporia
