The Soul of Mother Teresa

Recent reports that Mother Teresa suffered from profound doubts about God throughout her life, and may have been an atheist, yet went on helping the poor and destitute of Calcutta without the support of religious beliefs, makes her legend more remarkable. It is not remarkable that an atheist would devote her life to helping others; many atheists have done so. What is remarkable is that a woman who became a nun and dedicated her life to God, suffered long-term doubts about the existence of God but continued on her mission anyway.

Her story reminds me of the story of Jean Meslier, a French priest in Etrepigne, Champaigne, during the Seventeenth Century. For forty years Meslier attended to the needs of his congregation, performed all Catholic rites and rituals, and never complained or let-on that he did not believe in God. When he died, people found a 633-page manuscript in which Meslier explained his non-belief in God and gave reasons for such non-belief. He stated that religion was “but a castle in the air,” and that theology was “but ignorance of natural causes reduced to a system.” He argued that religion was not necessary to morals. Meisler’s writings were influential with Voltaire and other thinkers during the Enlightenment.

The theologian William Lane Craig and others have claimed that it is impossible to be a moral person without belief in God. Without God, they say, there are no absolutes and everything is relative. After describing the horrors of Auschwitz, Craig said: “And yet, if God does not exist, then in a sense, our world is Auschwitz: there is no absolute right and wrong: all things are permitted. But no atheist, no agnostic, can live consistently with such a view.” Yet if you look at the life and works of Mother Theresa, it seems that Craig is wrong.

The philosopher Blaise Pascal claimed that although people could not prove the existence of God, they should believe in God anyway. If they were right, they gained heaven and if they were wrong they lost nothing. On the other hand, if people disbelieved in God and were wrong, they would suffer damnation. It was called “Pascal’s wager.” The idea was that if you were smart, you would bet that there was a God.

The problem with Pascal’s wager is that many atheists cannot so cavalierly ignore their doubts. It seems that Mother Teresa, like Jean Meslier, could not shake her doubts about the existence of God. Nevertheless, she went on through the filthy, fetid, malodorous, impoverished slums of Calcutta tending to the needs of the most destitute, downtrodden, diseased, starving people of India. She did so because she thought it was the right thing to do regardless of whether there was a God. She did so out of natural human pity, compassion, and love. She did not take Pascal up on his wager and just believe in God for the sake of hedging her bets. She persevered in her work without God.

I suspect that the sheer misery and misfortune of the people she was tending to may have strengthened Mother Teresa in her disbelief. How could God allow people to suffer so much? Why did God not answer her prayers and come to the aid of these wretches? She probably concluded over the years that God was not going to do anything.

Richard Dawkins said that “Pascal’s wager could only ever be an argument for feigning belief in God.” William James said that such a “mechanical calculation would lack the inner soul of faith’s reality; and if we were ourselves in the place of the Deity, we should probably take particular pleasure in cutting off believers of this pattern from their infinite reward.”

The philosopher Martin Buber said: “he who knows God as something by which he is to profit is the godless man--not the atheist who addresses the Nameless out of the night and yearning of his garret window.”

Many atheists would like to believe in God, but can’t. Nevertheless, they believe that there is right and wrong. They seek to do the right thing, and to live rich, good, worthwhile lives. They are not known for wild, riotous, immoral behavior. Many scientists, college professors, and intellectuals are atheists. They contribute much to the world. Many modest, decent, kind people are atheists. They strive to live exemplary lives. Some are, like Mother Teresa, saintly.