Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E who wrote (12314)	4/24/2001 10:05:56 PM
From: The Philosopher	Respond to of 82486

I really think it's time you either put up or shut up.

To: E who wrote (12314)	4/29/2001 11:06:09 PM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Christopher: I see that there is no way we can ever see the question of whether Mother Teresa was a force for good or ill the same way. I'll say a few things about this, though for me it's not a time to be on SI; and then i'll post some quotes from a couple of books. I wish i had a scanner. I tried to get Hitchens's book from the local library, i'm sure there are interesting citations there; but our library doesn't have it. I've got a couple of other books though. One a simple hagiography, one half-hagiographical. First, I completely accept that Mother Teresa was a person profoundly and sincerely devoted to her cause. That she was even, given her bizarre and delusionary beliefs, a person of heroic virtue. The issue i'm discussing is whether her cause, and the way she pursued it, resulted in a great deal of unnecessary human suffering; whether she routinely committed acts, in the pursuit of ends she felt were holy, that had awful consequences for others. Understand that I think creating conditions that predictably produce terrible and unnecessary suffering for others is awful. On the other hand, I fully understand that, philosophically and psychologically, "Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner." This applies to anyone who commits acts with horrific consequences in suffering to others, but commits them feeling fervently that it is right to do so. Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner. So I can stand aside long enough from my belief that a child dying agonizingly of cancer being given only ibuprofen when there's money in the bank to buy effective painkillers is awful, to be aware that Mother Teresa had her (religious) reasons, and was devotedly and zealously living by them. And, like the Taliban, who have their (religious) reasons, and are living by them, she did everything possible to make everyone live by them; and this it's hard for me to stand aside from. There are things I'm not going to bother to address. One is whether she had many millions of dollars that were contributed by those who believed their contributions were for the purpose of assuaging suffering. If you want to, believe that veruy little money was given her. Or, alternatively, believe that those who contributed to the Missionaries of Charity, contributed not to alleviate human suffering but for some other reason, such as for the opening of hundreds of convents. If you need a bank statement to accept that she had big bucks, then believe funds were the problem. What Mother Teresa and other devout religious zealots, like the Taliban, for example, believe, is the proposition that there is a post mortem existence available to humans who follow a prescribed set of obeisances and observances and sacrifices; that it is superior to earthly life; and that any amount of suffering on earth is justified, in fact should perhaps be encouraged, for its sake and in its honor. Christopher Hodgkins stipulates that judgments about patently inhumane (in their effects) actions made on the basis that, post-mortem, it will be proved to have been for the best, can not be made by persons who are non-participants in this set of beliefs. I won't address that issue either. I'll just post some comments. Since you dismiss those made by Marxists and by former Missionaries of Charity, I have no reason to believe you will necessarily believe these. But even if you do, your framing of the situation shows you think it's fine, pretty much, it seems, as long as MT felt deeply the results of her actions would please Jesus. I can't type all night, so i'll just post some quotes and a couple of titles for those who are interested. This post is long enough, though.