Atheist group at Dartmouth plans anti Mother Teresa event

[livingwordunity]

The atheist equivalent to the Westboro Baptists.

 

[Threep]

The atheist equivalent to the Westboro Baptists.

Actually they seemed to have been inspired to take this stance on Mother Teresa by this article by Christopher Hitchens. i myself have been wondering for some time why internet atheists have had it out for Mother Teresa, and I guess I have finally found my answer, in a hate-filled article backed up by nothing substantial.

 

[Bogurodzica]

On another forum the same subject is being debated. The atheist argument is she was a hypocrite because she did not really believe in God. They a basing this argument on what was written about her soon after her death.

Of course what they are talking about is her Dark Night Of The Soul. It has been explained too them that this not the same as being an" Atheist". That the Dark night of the soul is something that many Saints and Catholic Mystics have experienced, and that it is part of the quickening that many deeply devout Catholics have experienced, throw-out the ages.

But the idea is lost upon them, because they deny that there is anything beyond what they touch or see, or prove with a scientific experiment.

 

[BroomWagon]

The atheist equivalent to the Westboro Baptists.

As they say, “I don’t care who you are, that’s funny!”

 

[oldcatholicguy]

I wonder if the writer of this on-campus article is dramatizing the event and blowing it out of proportion. That’s what newspaper writers do, after all, to make their writing more compelling.

It’s good for campus groups to explore and question, of course–that’s what college is best for. And if Mother Teresa is on her way to be canonized, there is a news peg for discussing her.
And Mother Theresa herself all but admits in her own diaries that she was not as people thought she was, which makes her an interesting figure to examine:

Mother Teresa, who worked for years among the poor of Calcutta, wrote in 1958: “My smile is a great cloak that hides a multitude of pains.”
Because she was “forever smiling”, people thought “my faith, my hope and my love are overflowing and that my intimacy with God and union with his will fill my heart. If only they knew . . .”
Mother Teresa, who was greatly admired by Diana, Princess of Wales, said in another letter: "The damned of Hell suffer eternal punishment because they experiment with the loss of God.
“In my own soul, I feel the terrible pain of this loss. I feel that God does not want me, that God is not God and that he does not really exist.”
Il Messeggero, Rome’s popular daily newspaper, said: “The real Mother Teresa was one who for one year had visions and who for the next 50 had doubts - up until her death.”
(telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/1414752/Mother-Teresas-diary-reveals-her-crisis-of-faith.html)

Because of what she herself wrote, to explore who she was versus the public perception of her is an interesting debate.

But it sounds as though the email for the event used the word “conned” to try and interest students to attend the campus event and make them curious…and then the writer of this campus newsletter took it a step further and used the words “plan to skewer”…

Maybe they just plan to discuss and debate with passion. And if the topic is a controversial figure, as she has become, that is not a bad thing.

So this- “full-out romp against why one of the most beloved people of the century, Mother Teresa, is as Hitchens put it… ‘a lying, thieving Albanian dwarf.’” is just a means by which to generate a passionate discussion and debate,

but “plan to skewer” is just the author unfairly criticizing the atheist organization in an attempt to drum up business for the school paper.

Yeah, shame on the author of the article. /sarcasm

 

[Crescentinus]

I wonder why they didn’t go after the late Christopher Hitchens? After all, when he died last year, the mainstream media and the militant atheists have deified him.

 

[Crescentinus]

They’re just miserable and unhappy, and so they try to bring other people down to their level, rather than aspire to emulate happy, useful people of faith. Misery loves company and all that.

Is it really any different than all the anti-Catholics who join this message board?

Good point.
Anti-Catholics live for nothing other than anti-Catholicism.

 

[Faithdancer]

Well, I have plenty to thank God for today, including my family… and that people like Mother Theresa exist in this world which sometimes seems overrun with evil. I am also grateful for the people who can’t take a day off today, and are putting their own lives at risk, for the benefit of others.

These Dartmouth kids need to spend a semester abroad, maybe in a city like Kabul or Calcutta. It might open their eyes to see a capital city with no sewer system, and donkey’s eating human waste in the streets.

I had the privilege of attending an ivy league, as well as a top tier public school. My take on it, is that young people today are extremely well put together, or extremely mixed up. I saw plenty of college age people who were so overshadowed by their narcissistic and greedy helicopter parents, that they had no grounding in the way the world really works.

Well said.

 

[Faithdancer]

Actually they seemed to have been inspired to take this stance on Mother Teresa by this article by Christopher Hitchens. i myself have been wondering for some time why internet atheists have had it out for Mother Teresa, and I guess I have finally found my answer, in a hate-filled article backed up by nothing substantial.

When one reads such rhetoric, what can one say, but…Hitchens!

 

[IbnFiktur]

From the article:

“Hann added that he estimates about five to ten people will participate in the event slated for this Saturday.”

Yeah. Ignore these bozos like the rest of the world is.

 

[InJesusItrust]

With regular Christians they can scream “hippocrite” and justify their sins, but with a genuine saint they feel extremely threatened, because they know in their hearts that the way shown by Jesus is THE way, but they do not want to give up their sins. So they try to show the way as impractical whenever they can, so they can dismiss it, even if they have to wallow in the pits digging dirt to do so. Those who love darkness shake their fists at the sun.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

Ironically, one of the author’s about Mother Tersa and a person who knew her well, Susan Conroy, is a graduate of Dartmouth College.

I wonder if she’ll provide some info to refute the claims of the atheist ?

susanconroy.com/about.shtml

Jim

 

[livingwordunity]

It’s funny how they never do an anti- Prophet Muhammad event.

It’s probably because they wouldn’t enjoy getting kidnapped, beheaded, and dragged through the streets. The ones who attack Christianity are usually cowards who choose to pick on us because they know we won’t physically go after them.

 

[RACJ]

I wonder if the writer of this on-campus article is dramatizing the event and blowing it out of proportion. That’s what newspaper writers do, after all, to make their writing more compelling.

It’s good for campus groups to explore and question, of course–that’s what college is best for. And if Mother Teresa is on her way to be canonized, there is a news peg for discussing her.
And Mother Theresa herself all but admits in her own diaries that she was not as people thought she was, which makes her an interesting figure to examine:

Mother Teresa, who worked for years among the poor of Calcutta, wrote in 1958: “My smile is a great cloak that hides a multitude of pains.”
Because she was “forever smiling”, people thought “my faith, my hope and my love are overflowing and that my intimacy with God and union with his will fill my heart. If only they knew . . .”
Mother Teresa, who was greatly admired by Diana, Princess of Wales, said in another letter: "The damned of Hell suffer eternal punishment because they experiment with the loss of God.
“In my own soul, I feel the terrible pain of this loss. I feel that God does not want me, that God is not God and that he does not really exist.”
Il Messeggero, Rome’s popular daily newspaper, said: “The real Mother Teresa was one who for one year had visions and who for the next 50 had doubts - up until her death.”
(telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/1414752/Mother-Teresas-diary-reveals-her-crisis-of-faith.html)

Because of what she herself wrote, to explore who she was versus the public perception of her is an interesting debate.

But it sounds as though the email for the event used the word “conned” to try and interest students to attend the campus event and make them curious…and then the writer of this campus newsletter took it a step further and used the words “plan to skewer”…

Maybe they just plan to discuss and debate with passion. And if the topic is a controversial figure, as she has become, that is not a bad thing.

I think that virtually everyone doubts God from time to time. Why? B/c He did not give us the mental acuity to understand the how and why of His Creation. What does not make logical sense to us must not be real. The only problem with this, and it is a great blessing really, is that God gave us more than enough evidence of his magnificence through the natural world. The more that we learn, the more questions that we have, and the less that we know. It is sheer hubris to believe that man is all that there is. We have NOTHING to do with the majesty that we observe. Rob

 

[manualman]

They’re just demonstrating what original freethinkers they are. You know, just like Hitchens…

I’ve read his article before and it’s not remotely unbiased journalism. It’s a hatchet job which seeks to portray anything and everything in the worst interpretation possible. I’m sure if you had set him loose on the streets of Jerusalem, the guy could have done the same sort of “expose” on Jesus himself. It’s always easier to tear down than to build up.

Criticisms of MT on the health care front always miss the point. Her goal was NOT to provide cutting edge, top quality health care to as many people as she could afford. Her goal was always to establish communities of people who would first LOVE the sick and then provide loving care for them. That goal always required that the community FIRST love God and receive Grace. Those with secular humanist lenses on always perceived something nefarious in MT’s “lack” of cutting edge health care techniques, materials and staff training. They lacked an understanding of what her mission really was.

 

[LEMAITRE]

I suspect they adhere to the late Christopher Hitchens (may God have Mercy upon his soul) view of Mother Teresa. He had an irrational dislike for her and her activities and could not understand why she would bother helping only some the destitute Indians if she couldn’t help all of them.

 

[BlueEyedLady]

Just to answer the question of why atheists don’t attack Muslims as much its because here in the US no one feels like their freedom is being impacted by Islam. In the US there are a large number of people who are fighting for gay marriage, equality for women, and reproductive rights. It is not Muslims that are standing in their way, and it is not the Quran that is being used to justify the oppression. If this fight was happening in Pakistan they would blame Muslims and Christians wouldn’t even be on the radar. In India it would Hindus. You get the point.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

I suspect they adhere to the late Christopher Hitchens (may God have Mercy upon his soul) view of Mother Teresa. He had an irrational dislike for her and her activities and could not understand why she would bother helping only some the destitute Indians if she couldn’t help all of them.

Christopher Hitchens was outright nasty toward Mother Teresa.

He made the claim that she had lost her faith, after it was revealed that she had gone through a sever dark night of the soul.

His lack of understanding about things spiritual, was obvious.

Today, he knows who Mother Teresa is and the one she was following.

Jim

 

[Crescentinus]

Christopher Hitchens was outright nasty toward Mother Teresa.

He made the claim that she had lost her faith, after it was revealed that she had gone through a sever dark night of the soul.

His lack of understanding about things spiritual, was obvious.

Today, he knows who Mother Teresa is and the one she was following.

Jim

I recall the late Christopher Hitchens debating with Bill Donahue back in 2000 about that issue. Donahue recalls that Hitchens was outright vitriolic and didn’t even show evidence behind his accusation. That was shown on a recent episode of EWTN Live.

 

[LEMAITRE]

(by the way, why do people call her “Teresa” when her name is Agnes?)

When she took her vows to become a nun she shed her old life and name. Agnes is the name her parents gave her. Teresa is the name of the Saint she chose to be named after St. Thérčse of Lisieux. This is the name she chose to be known as for her ‘religious life’.