Blessed Therese's Cold Hard Facts

In the video of Blessed Therese (or Teresa according to some sources) Neumann that we watched in class, why was the video concluded with facts? In the context of something that is deemed religious and beyond facts, why was there the need for them in this video?

This video appeals to our 'Cartesian' view of the world where facts get us to the "Truth". Religion, as how I was taught from a young age by Lutherans, is a belief system. Whenever I used to play devils advocate with religious authorities in my church, I always used reasons and scientific facts of the non-existence of god. They replied usually with some variation of a theme that god worked in ways that did not follow the ways of reason. They said you couldn't explicitly prove god's existence through science and such. It's more like something that you feel.

I don't think the church that I went to quite held the universal modern christian perspective of science and reason but I think it provides interesting grounds to think about. If Blessed Therese's stigmata's were truly something that happened and were a religious experience, why does there need to justification in the form of reason for it? I feel like christianity changed a lot after the enlightenment and even more so today, to account for rationalism, and science. Christianity "made" the prerequisites as to what a saint is. It's almost like a checklist. Did they meet these requirements? No food? No water? Rigidity or stink after death? OK. She's a saint. It's devoid of all feeling.

Josef Hanauer, a critic of Therese Neumann which he claims her to be a sham, tries to bring to focus nobody actually ever saw her bleeding. Why did they? Can't people just believe because that's what their religious beliefs entitle? Can't they believe in the feelings that Therese provokes? Those feelings are real. I felt many nerves in my body lighten up and made me want to squirm (Cartesian I know). I couldn't even keep my eyes on her the first round of viewing the video. Whether I believe in Therese's story or not does not take into consideration of my feelings. I believe she is a sham. But what of it?

Her beatification was a result of 40,000 person signed petition. Not explicitly by the Roman Catholic Church. A political or social result? Therese's story is a perplexing one where reason is the architect. When politics and emotions enter the domain it seems to make the stars disperse and the constellations appear (if you want them to, Cartesians). How does she make you feel? What politics does she represent?

"One of the reasons I am here on earth today is to prove that man can live by God's invisible light, and not by food only." - Therese Neumann