A Miracle Summary and Analysis

To begin a section simply titled, "A Miracle," Hitchens quotes another passage from the philosopher David Hume that the most extraordinary events in life make people feel religious. He follows this with a quote from the American colonial writer Tom Paine that miracles and prophecy help to turn religion into a trade. Finally, he offers another quote from Sigmund Freud, who says people call a belief an illusion when it is motivated largely by the fulfillment of a wish.

Hitchens' text resumes by pointing out that the Catholic Church requires evidence of a miracle performed by someone before that person can be declared a saint. It traces the rise of Mother Teresa's fame to a 1971 book by the British writer and television personality Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God, which itself arose from a 1969 BBC documentary of the same...