The greatest modern day Nun....

[Julie]

Was an atheist! Mother Teresa's diary has just been published.

Error - Prolexic (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/11/29/wteres29.xml)

[Adam]

That sounds more like a crisis of faith than outright atheism. I think most religious people have doubts from time to time.

[viscousmemories]

That article is five years old. :chin:

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

atheists are WAAAYYYY more religious than i ever thought :chin:

[Julie]

LOL I know its old...so was she heh.Its weird...the link I originally posted was from today...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/24/wteresa124.xml

[viscousmemories]

Weird. I just thought it was odd that it happened five years ago and I hadn't heard about it.

[Gypsyvox]

I'm sure the Vatican is just thrilled about this. :lol:

[Adora]

That's not atheism.

[Ensign Steve]

I always figured nuns and priests and stuff who actually study the bible real hard will have sometimes a crisis of faith. But then, they have the calling or whatnot, so they can be stronger of faith and continue to believe even through the doubts. I feel bad, though, in that passage she sounded like she was in a lot of pain. Then again, that was one passage out of a lifetime of journaling. Everybody is entitled to a sad moment in life, but that's not the same as the life-long crisis of faith the article is suggesting.

[Kevlar]

Reason sometimes causes a crisis in faith (and faith sometimes causes a crisis in reason). I never really paid much attention to Mother Teresa, but now my interest is growing.

[Blake]

The date of the article in the URL is five years old, for whatever reason, but the article itself says it was "last updated" today.

Another article in the Telegraph two links away from the first says that the Vatican considers it a sign of strength, not weakness, and it will do nothing to hold up her canonization.

Kevlar, if you're definitely interested, Christopher Hitchens' The Missionary Position: Mother Theresa in Theory and Practice is essential reading.

[Julie]

YouTube - BULL$#!+ - Mother Theresa (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q1m-8npkJ4)

Very interesting.

And I know crisis in faith isn't atheism but a 40 year long one? Ya thats something else.

[Kevlar]

Kevlar, if you're definitely interested, Christopher Hitchens' The Missionary Position: Mother Theresa in Theory and Practice is essential reading.

Thanks Blake, I'll check it out. That title is hilarious.

[Uthgar the Brazen]

YouTube - BULL$#!+ - Mother Theresa (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q1m-8npkJ4)

Very interesting.

And I know crisis in faith isn't atheism but a 40 year long one? Ya thats something else.

While they're not telling me anything I didn't already know about a woman who enjoyed being a guest of State for decades while she encouraged women to remain uneducated and impoverished, that was extremely one-sided. A couple of edited quotes from a TCL lackey don't make for balanced investigation.

Not that I really ought to expect that of Penn & Teller, I suppose. ;)

[D. Scarlatti]

Now we need to know whether she endured a crisis about whether to return all that ill-gotten savings & loan money.

[chick]

Now we need to know whether she endured a crisis about whether to return all that ill-gotten savings & loan money.
Mother Theresa's Millions (http://members.lycos.co.uk/bajuu/).

[InTheServiceOfZeke]

YouTube - BULL$#!+ - Mother Theresa (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q1m-8npkJ4)

Very interesting.

And I know crisis in faith isn't atheism but a 40 year long one? Ya thats something else.


sneaky atheists, but what do you expect from religious people that are motivated and inspired by the invisible?

nothing.


they are all the same.

please keep calling her an atheist or hypocrite...it amuses me :)

[livius drusus]

I always figured nuns and priests and stuff who actually study the bible real hard will have sometimes a crisis of faith. But then, they have the calling or whatnot, so they can be stronger of faith and continue to believe even through the doubts.
That's definitely what the nuns and priests at my school said. :yup:

[Brimshack]

Actually, I think what this underscores is the artificiality of treating beliefs ...scuze me, Beliefs ...as character traits. People can have a wide range of thoughts about a subject over the course of a given day, entertaining completely opposite positions from one moment to the next. But we still talk about it as though this or that person believes x, y, or z. One could interpret a public belief stance as a probability statement expressing what someone seems to think most of the time or a public commitment expressing what they have staked their life on (until it is changed) regardless of way their thoughts might swing in private moments. Still, most of the time a persons beliefs are treated as static and clear cut, almost like eye color.

In the end, I think it's the metaphysical status that Abrahamic religions give to belief itself. As a vehicle to salvation, belief must be more than a mere moment in a life of many thoughts; they must even be more than a persistant theme in a life of many thoughts. Under the God of Abraham, belief itself is supernatural force, one which must be thought a constant.

...even if the frailties of actual life should rather frequently prove otherwise.

[livius drusus]

Well-said, Brim. :thumbup:

[Angakuk]

And I know crisis in faith isn't atheism but a 40 year long one? Ya thats something else.

I don't think it is accurate to characterize a 40 yr. struggle with doubt as a "crisis". It's more like a persistent condition of life. People of faith who don't struggle with existential doubt probably just aren't doing much thinking. In my own life faith and doubt have walked hand-in-hand for at least 37 years. I fully expect to make it 40 and more, should I live so long.

Mark 9:23-24
Jesus said to him, "If you are able!--All things can be done for the one who believes." 24Immediately the father of the child cried out, "I believe; help my unbelief!"