Was mother Teresa an atheist?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20070823/wl_time/motherteresascrisisoffaith

Does the fact that she questioned her belief in god prove that even athiests and agnositcs can still be caring and giving without the promise of an eternal reward?

Answer 1

She was a catholic - she was a sham.
She collected millions and spent next to nothing on the starving under her care in India.

On Mother Teresa ... “HITCHENS: The care facilities are grotesquely simple: rudimentary, unscientific, miles behind any modern conception of what medical science is supposed to do. There have been a number of articles - I've collected some more since my book came out - about the failure and primitivism of her treatment of lepers and the dying, of her attitude towards medication and prophylaxis. Very rightly is it said that she tends to the dying, because if you were doing anything but dying she hasn't really got much to offer.

HITCHENS: Well, I have the testimony of a former very active member of her Order who worked for her for many years and ended up in the office Mother Teresa maintains in New York City. She was in charge of taking the money to the bank. She estimates that there must be $50 million in that bank account alone.”

Answer 2

Now that's something I've never heard of. Very interesting if true. Might she become the first atheist saint?

I think it's obvious (except to dishonest promoters of false faith) that one can be generous and selfless without belief in God. I don't see why an example like this should be necessary. The people who believe an atheist can't be moral are not subject to rational persuasion.

And I wonder how much effect the promise of eternal reward has on even a believer's behavior. In my experience, they talk more about the fear of eternal punishment.

Answer 3

No, even the best of Faith needs questioning. To just follow blindly isn't Faith, it's Religion and unless it's questioned all Religion then becomes is something we've read and re-read out of a book. It isn't in one's soul. For words to become Faith, they have to transmute themselves from the page into the soul, almost like taking communion over and over again. One has to reaffirm that Faith inside oneself.
I love the diatribe in the movie "Dogma" about Faith being a glass of water. When a person is young the glass is small and easy to fill; but as one gets older the glass gets bigger and the same amount of water doesn't fill it, yet the Glass still needs to be filled for the Soul's sake. It rather gives a new meaning to is the Glass half empty or half full.
For Mother Theresa to have done what she did all those years, she emptied and refilled her glass many times. She wasn't an atheist. She and God were Best of Friends. If she doubted him, well, somedays you need to do that. She seemed to always fill her cup back up.

Answer 4

Questioning your faith does not make you an atheist; you must stop believing. And given the truth about her, I really wouldn't want to include her in the atheist category; behind all of her PR there was one twisted philosophy that encouraged people to have children even if they knew the children would starve or lead a horrible life.

Answer 5

"I call, I hang, i choose ... and there is not any one to respond to ... no one on Whom i will hang ... no, no one. on my own ... the place is my faith ... even deep down suitable in there is no longer something, yet vacancy & darkness ... My God ... how painful is that this unknown discomfort ... I have not have been given any faith ... I dare no longer utter the words & ideas that crowd in my heart ... & make me go through untold affliction. maximum of unanswered questions stay interior of me afraid to discover them ... via blasphemy ... If there be God ... please forgive me ... once I attempt to advance my ideas to Heaven there is such convicting vacancy that those very ideas return like sharp knives & harm my very soul. i'm informed God loves me ... and however the certainty of darkness & coldness & vacancy is so great that no longer something touches my soul." it incredibly is a quote from mom Teresa. there's a extensive distinction in doing some thing when you consider which you're saved or doing some thing to get saved. i understand that mom Teresa did what she did via fact she became into saved yet each and every now and then...possibly she forgot. possibly she became into afraid that it became into for no longer something. possibly she felt an criminal duty and concern that if she did no longer carry out her accountability she could fail God. i'm hoping that did no longer creep in although curiously that it (a minimum of interior the above letter) now and lower back did creep in. She each and every from time to time forgot that it became into the affection of God that sent her.

Answer 6

No. She never gave up her belief she went through a period of time when she did not feel his daily presence and so felt lost and alone.
My aunt who is a nun has also admitted to this feeling and considered it a test of faith. She says it was a very hard time for her, she didn't question her faith but missed that spiritual connection and worried she'd never get it back. She did.
Let's not forget, these are human beings. Most of us lose our way at some point. The lucky ones find their way back.

Answer 7

I try my best to be helpful and kind to my fellow Human. I do not have any Faith. I do not believe that being religious has much to do with what kind of person you are. Maybe some few get a new set of rules to live their life by and become better. But, by and large i think Man is what he was born and raised to be. Some are kind some are not.

Answer 8

Saint Mother Teresa's devotion to Jesus Christ and her mountain like (Achalam) faith in Christianity is beyond doubt.The article under reference is deliberate mis-interpretation of her talk.Ther is a lot of difference between "looking" and simply "seeing' -similarly simply 'hearing' and "listening"--seeing and hearing are politician's "lip sympathy"-people who "saw" standing 15 feet away from a stinking leper, Mother Teresa "looked" after him physically lifting him at her old age--she "Listened" to his pain rather "hearing" from a safe distance and giving him false promises.The pain,suffering and agony of those poor and sick people might have made her sometimes to ponder over(emptiness). She had "Silently" acted rather than making empty rhetorics(a lot of "Noise") about the "stinking"Lepor's agony and pain.It is a common practice to pass derogatory remarks about Honest and Sincere well known "workers".She was walking "Jesus Christ" of 20 th century and we Indians are very proud of our "Bharat Ratna"=crown jewel of India, who selected Calcutta to do her service and we were lucky to see the walking "Jesus" amongst us.--I am a Hindu -not a Christian

Answer 9

Believers often question their faith. I would worry about anyone who doesn't, since that would show blind faith without thinking. Mother Teresa did more good than most people who have ever walked the planet BECAUSE of her beliefs. She was certainly no atheist. Please show me an atheist who has ever done anything akin to what Mother Teresa did. They don't exist.

Answer 10

I don't think she was questioning her faith per se...she said she hadn't been filled with God in her hear, hadn't felt him or his awesome power in years...and that she had a terrible ache and pain in her because she was lacking what she felt before.
I think it was good that she questioned what she was feeling, or lacking...because it made her faith stronger in the end.