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The “revelation” that Mother Teresa endured a dark night of the soul proves beyond a doubt that atheists and non-believers in the modern world have opted for the easy path. As the just published reflections show, it is harder today to have faith in God that to lapse into disbelief.
“No” the problems of 2007 in the Middle East are not based on religion; rather, these are the results of bad politics. Doubters will howl in protest at my answer, but then some people still believe that the Protestant Reformation was mainly a religious event and not a wrenching sociological change in 15th century Europe.
I am willing to abstain from casting too harsh a light on the lives of the founders of the Church of Latter-day Saints (Joseph Smith) or either of the two warring leaders of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Charles Taze Russell and Joseph Franklin Rutherford. But I will state categorically that Francis of Assisi had more potential to be a cult leader than any of them, yet he refused that path.
The sociological explanation of cults includes the notion that it is “organized around a personality.” Religion is a much wider category. It includes some cults, but is more focused on communitarian practices and faith. While it is easy for an academic to pretend that just stating such categories settles all issues, the reality of human experience makes few such clear distinctions about the differences between a cult and religion.
What Islam Really Says About Violence, Rights and Other Religions
Gomaa, Fadlallah, Mubarak, Khan, Siddiqi, Ellison, others | On Faith
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