"Catholic" Old Testament Scholar Lost Faith
Othmar Keel, 80, is an internationally known Old Testament scholar who made a lot of money with the Catholic Church.
A married layman, he taught from 1967 to 2002 at the once famous University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
Now, talking on Good Friday to the daily Tagesanzeiger Keel outed himself as non-believer and agnostic who stopped practicing while still being a “Catholic” professor.
During his career he was very publicly engaged in favour of liberal Church politics. He is a strong supporter of Pope Francis’ party-line.
Keel told the daily that he does not believe in an afterlife but expects to “return to nature”.
Now, "dearest to him" and the “most beautiful thing” is to sleep. Recently Keel felt as if he would "enter Nirvana and dissolve in nothing". This was for him "a state of happiness.”
What the Gospels say about the resurrection of Christ is for Keel a result of “wishful thinking”. For him the desire to live eternally is a “presumption”.
Nevertheless, Keel admits that he prays every day, “Habits make up a good part of our daily lives. When I say God, I mean fate or nature.”
After death, Keel wants his body to be used for medical experiments.
Picture: Othmar Keel, © Spartanbu, wikicommons, CC BY-SA, #newsStfyaaqwgt
A married layman, he taught from 1967 to 2002 at the once famous University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
Now, talking on Good Friday to the daily Tagesanzeiger Keel outed himself as non-believer and agnostic who stopped practicing while still being a “Catholic” professor.
During his career he was very publicly engaged in favour of liberal Church politics. He is a strong supporter of Pope Francis’ party-line.
Keel told the daily that he does not believe in an afterlife but expects to “return to nature”.
Now, "dearest to him" and the “most beautiful thing” is to sleep. Recently Keel felt as if he would "enter Nirvana and dissolve in nothing". This was for him "a state of happiness.”
What the Gospels say about the resurrection of Christ is for Keel a result of “wishful thinking”. For him the desire to live eternally is a “presumption”.
Nevertheless, Keel admits that he prays every day, “Habits make up a good part of our daily lives. When I say God, I mean fate or nature.”
After death, Keel wants his body to be used for medical experiments.
Picture: Othmar Keel, © Spartanbu, wikicommons, CC BY-SA, #newsStfyaaqwgt