On Sartre
I've always had a lot of difficult with Sartre and the atheistic existentialists as a whole. I have a remote sense of respect for Camus, a sort of lame chilly filling about Beckett (who went existentialism one better and wound up with nihilism). But this quote posted in the comment box for this post chez Kairos has once again opened my eyes to the tremendous mercies of God. As I commented in answer to this quote--at least with an Atheist, He has some faith to work with--it's the hard-and-fast agnostics that give Him the hardest time. (What would you do if your beloved didn't merely say, "Prove you love me" --hard enough in itself--but "Convince me you exist.")
And then Sartre, the prophet of unbelief, underwent a mysterious transformation. In a published dialogue with ex-Maoist Pierre Victor, Sartre confessed the impossible. He had come to believe in God. The following sentence sums up one of the oddest spiritual journeys since St. Paul's. "I do not feel," Sartre wrote, "that I am the product of chance, a speck of dust in the universe, but someone who was expected, prepared, pre-figured. In short, a being whom only a Creator could put here, and this idea of a creating hand refers to God." [National Review, June 11, 1982. p. 677. Article by Thomas Molnar.]- from 'Stumbling Blocks to Stepping Stones: Spiritual Answers to Psychological Questions', by Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel, C.F.R. Paulist Press, 1987. Page. 30
I put it here again, because I want the reminder and I don't want to lose track of this. Thanks to the Anonymous poster who was so kind as to share this.
