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Welcome to The Secular Gospel According to Jess! In this blog you’ll find everything from cartoons that make me laugh, to quotes that inspire me, to stories of my own personal experience when it comes to dealing with religion and pretty much everything in between. The title of my blog is intended to be ironic, as one doesn’t often hear the word, “gospel”, associated with secularism, but my intent is to preach, for lack of a better word, what I think gospel should really be about: love, rationalism, fairness, equality, human rights, science and truth. Enjoy!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Mother Teresa...an atheist?


Modern Christians have touted Mother Theresa as an inspiration for faith and religious compassion for decades. Turns out, she didn't believe in God when she died. She renounced her faith, and even though she desperately wanted to believe in God, she no longer could. Her work with children in Calcutta, India's slums made it difficult for the former woman of faith to remain a believer, though she began her work there citing "a calling", based on unquestioned faith.

This article spoke to me because if there is a sole reason for why I can't believe in a Biblical God it is because of the sheer amount of suffering I see in the world. Surely a rational person can agree that not all who suffer somehow deserve their suffering, as religion would have you believe.

"Where is my faith?" she wrote. "Even deep down… there is nothing but emptiness and darkness...If there be God — please forgive me." "Such deep longing for God…Repulsed, empty, no faith, no love, no zeal," she said. "What do I labor for?" she asked in one letter. "If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/23/eveningnews/main3199062.shtml
(Found on Reddit: "What is the most interesting thing you know?")

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