Tom Rapsas on Patheos descibes how John Templeton asked a question that stopped him in his tracks
Was the Earth a better place because you were born?
Mother Theresa apparently had some advice on how to achieve this noble goal. Although Christopher Hitchens has made some allegations in a book (which I have not read) saying Mother Theresa deliberately increased the suffering of the poor for some religious reason, one might think this would be irrelevant since otherwise we would have an ad hominem fallacy. On the other hand you'd expect she would take her own advice and thus make the world a better place but unless the allegations are false this seems not to have worked in Theresa's case.
Her advice was to go home and love your family. Taking this in spirit, this didn't seem bad advice as the proceess of caring other people would then one would expect make one sensitive to the cares and woes of people in general.
Apparently she also thought our society was poor in spirit. Being anti-religious this could ruffle my feathers a bit, but it could be interpreted as our society lacks empathy for those less fortunate than ourselves which I would agree with: we live in a society where people (mostly the fortunate) care more about money than other people. For example, Gawker Media cares more about making money than avoiding ruining people's lives by spreading salacious gossip and rumour. Apparently by caring for people at home this would make you a more caring person generally. Maybe that's not necessarily so. But then she talks about spreading love everywhere you go: leaving people who approach you happier. A bit mushy: love is perhaps too strong a word for my tastte but the underlying principle might work. Pratice would make perfect. Also small acts of kindness seem more realistic tusually than grand plans to achieve world peace etc.
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