From what I've read, Christie was a lifelong Anglican, and wasn't an atheist.  Throughout her Autobiography she refers to her faith, and her last sentence in her memoirs thanks "God for her good life."  I also remember reading that she kept a copy of "An Imitation of Christ" by her bedside.

I've always taken the quote to be a reflection of Christie's views on the nature of human evil.  People tend to give themselves full credit for good things happening, while minimizing the role of the divine in these successes, but when horrible things happen, a lot of people shift the blame.  When others were blaming God for allowing wars and atrocities and murders to occur, I think that Christie was saying that humanity had only itself to blame for so many of the disasters that befell it.

Thanks, GKC, for your informed reply. I don't necessarily think that references AC may have made to her faith are definitive proof that she believed for two reasons:

1) She was born in 1890, and lived through a time where atheism, while it was not exactly frowned upon, was not really considered a proper belief or a respectable way to live your life. I am 68 years old, but only adopted atheism as my belief in more recent years, for example.

2) A lot of people who, say, thank God for the happiness in their lives often only do so in a vague way - as if just remarking how lucky they were in life. Einstein is a good example of an atheist who made copious references to God, throughout his life, in statements where he was simply referring to providence or serendipity.

However I obviously accept your interpretation of the quote, and suspect that you are probably correct and that is what the Dame meant. I suppose I read it with a more 'modern' perspective. With all the tragedies of the recent years, regarding conflict in the world and acts of terrorism, I suppose I was looking at it with a new perspective. However, I shan't rule my suspicions out...

Hobbit

Hi,

Agatha Christie was a woman of deep personal faith; she wasn't just an Anglican because churchgoing was the norm for the English upper-classes.  A number of her poems were overtly religious - there was no mere tokenism in the children's stories and poems in "Star Over Bethlehem".  There're also evangelistic Christian motifs in "Taken at the Flood".

Her rather outdated (even at the time) views on capital punishment were based on her Christian faith (although as a Christian, I disagree, and don't know any Christians who would agree!): she believed that the death penalty was kinder to murderers, who would be taken to the fairly judged afterlife immediately rather than suffer a life in prison.  I think that element could only be born of real belief.

However, I think it's generally known that towards the end of her life, as her health failed, her mind wound down, and she grew more and more frustrated and unable to understand why she was dying, Dame Agatha's personal faith received several blows.  I'm sure she never officially renounced the church or her beliefs, and I can't imagine she would ever have called herself an atheist -- but, of course, I never knew her, and it's none of my business!

If she was (but I don't think so) my RE teacher at school would go CRAZY. He's possibly the biggest Catholic ever. Oh, Johnny made his post on my birthday.