Wow, it seems to me like Chapter 8 skimmed over quite a bit of information without really getting indepth into anything. From eating all the way to sex and love... I think a lot more could have been said, but I know this is just an introduction, soooo...
And Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, too. I found it interesting that the authors of our book pointed to Bono as a person striving for self-actualization. I'm not so sure what I think about that! I used to be a huge U2 fan back in my adolescent idealistic phase, but now he comes across to me as just a little... well, pretentious.
Mother Theresa is a better example, but the text fails to mention the book Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, published in 2007, that is a compilation of her letters to spiritual confidants and reveals a truly spiritually tormented person who had lost her faith and apparently never got it back. She called her smile a "mask" and even doubted God's existence. She never felt his presence.
That's sad, and I'm not sure what it means that she continued to do such great works. She said in these letters that she feared she was a hypocrite for extolling faith and God while holding on to what some have called such intense "spiritual darkness."
It's so strange to find such sharp cognitive dissonance that she seems to have just "learned to live with." I wonder about what she actually thought about her work -- it clearly was work for the good, and she helped so many people, but did she do so out of what she thought was some "noble lie?"
I find the psychology of religion really interesting, and I'm looking at neurology and religious experience for my final project.
If anyone's interested in knowing more, you can find articles on it like this one: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655415,00.html.
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