A Way Out of Youth Disaffiliation: Catholic Education on Science, Reason, and Faith

There is more compelling scientific evidence for God, life after death, a transphysical soul, Jesus, the Church, the Eucharist, and Mary than ever before. Here are a few examples:

• Peer-reviewed medical studies of near death experiences (including a declaration from the New York Academy of Sciences) showing the strong likelihood that our consciousness will survive bodily death.

• The evidence of a beginning of not only our universe, but of any hypothetical multiverse as demonstrated by many top Nobel physicists including Stephen Hawking.

• The evidence of a transcendent intelligent Creator responsible for the exceedingly improbable fine-tuning of universal constants and conditions needed for life forms in our universe as demonstrated by many top Nobel prize winning physicists, such as Sir Fred Hoyle.

• The Shroud of Turin (dated by four new scientific tests to the mid-first century) showing considerable evidence for both Jesus’ passion (as described in the Gospels) and His resurrection in glory.

• Thousands of scientifically validated miracles showing the reality of Jesus and Mary (e.g., healing miracles at Lourdes and for saints, Eucharistic miracles with living heart tissue growing out of consecrated hosts, the Tilma of Guadalupe, and the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima).

The above facts have transformed the landscape of science and the faith of our young people. With respect to the landscape of science, there are more scientists who believe in God or a higher transcendent power today than ever before—51% of scientists over all, 66% of young scientists, and 76% of physicians.

With respect to the faith of our young people, the above evidence can move their belief scores dramatically from virtual agnosticism to strong belief very quickly, which is important because 56% of our believing young people disaffiliate not only from the Catholic Church, but also from belief in God. The Magis Center’s 7th grade and 12th grade one-semester courses strongly demonstrate these increased belief scores.

For example, ARKtest.org shows that the Magis Center’s Catholic Faith and Science course moves the average belief score of seniors from a D+ (67) to a B (83) in one semester. This is the difference between students losing their faith in the freshman year of college versus a reasonable chance of maintaining faith throughout college and beyond. Excellent results are also obtained when presenting the same material to confirmation students, and we are now testing it on college students through FOCUS.

Since science-based apologetics is so effective for reversing unbelief and grounding post collegiate long-term faith we have developed a free artificial intelligence app—MagisAI—that will answer just about every secular criticism and objection to Catholicism and give science-based evidence for God, Jesus, life after death, the Eucharist, Mary, and much more. It will give solid social scientific evidence for Catholic morality and its importance for spiritual, emotional, and relational health. It will also answer most questions about Scripture, Catholic doctrine, Catholic theology, and spiritual life. It is true to Catholic doctrine, can adjust to any educational level, allows students to argue with it, and reveals the errors and omissions of secular AIs (e.g., ChatGPT).

Since it is free of charge and so effective in helping young people maintain and defend their faith, you may want to share it with your fellow parents, friends, and above all young people in high school or beyond.

All of these resources are available through Magiscenter.com and on the free MagisAI app (available on Apple Store and Google Play Store).