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Monday, September 5, 2016

Why attribute irrational miracles to Mother Teresa? an important article by Pallava Bagla published in The Economic times Sep 4,2016


In her lifetime, she had already earned the title 'saint of the gutters' and to the thousands of destitute and needy who she cared for she was a 'living god'. 

And today, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, a Catholic nun who served the poor inKolkata, is formally bestowed the title of Saint Teresa by Pope John Paul II at a function at the Vatican City. 

Her journey from her birth place Skopje, now in Macedonia, to her yeoman work in West Bengal is itself a 'miracle' but after her death to attribute this diminutive woman with a Herculean grit for serving the poor of having performed 'miracles' like curing two people of diseases borders on irrationality. 

Mother Teresa should have been made a saint without having so-called miracles associated with her name. 

It is worth highlighting that the Constitution of India in Article 51A (h) enunciates "to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform". This is where attribution of so-called miracles comes into conflict with the under standings of modern science. But India is complex civilisation where faith, science, religion and superstition all co-exit mostly in harmony but occasionally in conflict. 

India's best known living scientist and recent Bharat Ratna Professor CNR Rao on being asked said "No,I do not believe in miracles. One in thing general I will tell you, in India there is confusion between religion, faith, superstition and science. 

"Faith everybody should have one thing or the other, like if in science you must have faith in the laws of
physics. Faith is something everybody should have. If somebody has faith in philosophy or God, I have nothing against it; however, it should not give rise to superstition. 

"Even Einstein said nobody could be without faith. Religion also you can have any religion, but do not mix it up with other things in life. Faith has nothing to do with believing in things that cannot happen against the laws of physics." 

But for Mother Teresa to officially become a saint she needed to perform some miracles and according to the National Catholic Register: "The first [miracle] took place in West Bengal, India, and involved the healing of an Indian woman, Monica Besra, whose abdominal tumour was so severe that her doctors abandoned hope of saving her. 

"Taken into the care of the Missionaries of Charity, she continued to decline and endured such agony from the tumour that she could no longer sleep. On the one-year anniversary of Mother's passing, the sisters at the home placed a Miraculous Medal that had been touched to the body of Mother Teresa on Besra's stomach. The suffering woman fell asleep, and when she woke up, her pain was gone. Doctors examined her and found the reason why: The tumour had disappeared completely."

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