Faithless in Calcutta
1 September 2007 by vastleft
The recent, as it were, revelations about Mother Teresa’s doubts about God have been followed by a predictable wave of rationalization, exemplified by a self-described Muslim progressive on Newsweek / WaPo’s wretched On Faith forum: “Doubt Goes Hand in Hand with Faith.”
One minor quibble with this argument. Doubt is the fucking opposite of faith.
Merriam-Webster defines faith:
1 a : allegiance to duty or a person : LOYALTY b (1) : fidelity to one’s promises (2) : sincerity of intentions
2 a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust
3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs <the Protestant faith>
Update:
The Pope weighs in with a typically lame response:
“All believers know about the silence of God,” he said in unprepared remarks. “Even Mother Teresa, with all her charity and force of faith, suffered from the silence of God,” he said.He said believers sometimes had to withstand the silence of God in order to understand the situation of people who do not believe.
Yep, that’s got to be the reason.
Update #2:
Hitchens vs. Catholic League’s Bill Donahue on “Hardball.”
1 September 2007, on 12:24 pm
It’s all the more ironic that this occurs just as she’s on the verge of canonization- just one miracle short so far as I know(but, then, aren’t we all?).
1 September 2007, on 1:28 pm
Haha, oh Merriam-Webster. They would separate the definitions “belief in God” and “belief in something for which there is no proof”.
1 September 2007, on 4:15 pm
I feel sorry for Mother Theresa–as she was quite obviously depressed, anxious and racked with guilt over her lack of faith.
It has become exhausting for me to hear religious apologists for those such as Mother Theresa, trying to explain away her doubt as “part of faith.” As vastleft pointed out, faith and doubts are antithetical. Faith is closing ones’ eyes and ears to reason, doubt is allowing them to be uncovered–two things at opposite ends of a spectrum.
When the emptiness Theresa confessed to is explained away as “a sign of God testing her,” as a sign that she was “sharing in the emptiness Christ experienced on the cross,” it is simply a reminder of the impossibility of conducting a reasoned discussion with the faithful. The faithful turn to reason (often poor reasoning) when it suits their purposes, but then turn to lack of evidence if that will win an arguement.
Why does society at large, in a post-industrial, technological age–an “age of reason”–continue to allow such chicanery?
1 September 2007, on 6:45 pm
Ugh. When hasn’t god been silent?!?
In my experience, god has always been silent! I used to pray, and diligently attend church services and read the Bible. What did I get? Nothing.
What frustrated the hell out of me was the fact that in the Old Testament, god was far from silent. The people of the Old Testament didn’t need faith, because god was there to appear in a burning bush and kick their asses when they screwed up! Now what do we get? Jesus’s face in a grilled cheese sandwich? Puh-leeze.
I wondered why god didn’t bother to appear to us now like he supposedly did then. Did he not care? Was it because humanity was too evil?
Then it hit me: god probably doesn’t exist. He didn’t then, and he doesn’t now. It hurt like hell at first, but it was the simplest, most logical explanation.
1 September 2007, on 7:04 pm
Sarah reminded me of a comment Richard Dawkins made in The God Delusion as to the seemingly schizophrenic nature of God in The Bible: his rage and fury in the Old Testament (remember when He destroyed two cities in one night and turned a woman into a pillar of salt for looking back?) and his love and kindness in the New Testament.
1 September 2007, on 7:32 pm
It is sad that the real meaning of this piece of news will be lost in the “true believers”.
1 September 2007, on 8:01 pm
They try so hard to write these little episodes of doubt amongst the faithful off as normal, just part of their everyday life, because to acknowledge them as the cracks and fissures in the substandard concrete facade of their untenable worldviews that they are is to commit some sort of ideological suicide.
“If one lives voluntarily in a pitch dark room, one must squeeze one’s eyes tight against pinpricks of illumination that develop in the walls that surround, lest one inadvertently see.”
– Vernor Menzies
Illegitimus Non Carborundum
Book XXIII- Verse XLII
1 September 2007, on 9:10 pm
Let me get this straight. According to the Infallible Pope, God is silent so that believers can understand those who do not believe. What the gosh-golly heck does this mean? If Mother Theresa really understood atheism, she might have dug herself out of her pathetic slump, left the convent, gotten on anti-depressants, sought psychiatric help, built a career as a nurse/doctor/teacher and moved on. This woman believed that she was MARRIED to a 2,000 year-old dead man (Jeebus) and that he was playing rough with her. He never called back. Not once. And after all, she did put out. Anyone who has ever had a neurotic relationship with a narcissist would have recognized the dysfunctional relationship and moved on. She really dug herself into a pit.
1 September 2007, on 9:13 pm
OR they could be using it to show any ‘believers’ on the edge that their questioning of their own faith is a normal thing to do.
“Look, even the sainted Mother Teresa had her moments of doubt, but she still remained faithful to religion”
In any case its just another piece of garbage upon the heap that is religion. Either you recognize the stench and leave or you get buried under the trash.
1 September 2007, on 10:26 pm
And…for anyone who MIGHT have missed Penn & Teller’s “Bullshit” take on her [with Chris Hitchens, of course]…check out the YouTube:
“Mother Teresa: DEAFANATLY NOT A SAINT!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3tUuA7WBRE&mode=related&search=
1 September 2007, on 11:13 pm
Everyone knows that if god talked then that would disprove him!Silence proofs he’s real!WTF?
1 September 2007, on 11:38 pm
The silence of gord speaks loud and clear.
2 September 2007, on 12:17 am
I’ve always wondered what the response would be if you put that question to a believer, Sarah.
2 September 2007, on 1:44 am
AUM,
You know the answer. God wasn’t silent when he saved my cousin from cancer (no credit goes to the doctors and chemo, though).
The fact that He was silent when Johnny’s number came up on the battlefield, when the girl next door got leukemia, and when Uncle Jake died in that mining accident, that’s all part of His mysterious ways.
2 September 2007, on 9:32 am
In no way do I feel sorry for Teresa or any sympathy for her. She made thousands of people suffer for her religious dogma, now apparently a dogma she didn’t even believe in.
Maybe if somewhere someone comes up with a statement where she expresses regret and apologizes for her mistreatment of people, I could sympathize with her a little.
2 September 2007, on 5:04 pm
Let’s not be harsh. Look at how much better off she left the poor of India.
2 September 2007, on 5:16 pm
OV,
You mean by diverting money donated to help the poor into religious facilities or discouraging people who live in crushing poverty from utilizing reproductive freedoms?
2 September 2007, on 5:20 pm
vastleft, you are right. It’s hard to remember that most people don’t have the cognitive faculties that I and the rest of us here have.
3 September 2007, on 5:05 pm
Vastleft: Just kidding. I thought it was obvious. Sorry.
3 September 2007, on 8:51 pm
OV,
Sorry I missed the snark.