Re: atheists-- what is your source of hope?
 

Life is a self-contained circumstance. What occurs after it is over is irrelevant. The concept you call "hope" is an illusion. Pure artifice. My feeling is that because you feel you need hope for life after death, you are missing out on the true joy of life.

Re: atheists-- what is your source of hope?
 

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What occurs after [life] is over is irrelevant. The concept you call "hope" is an illusion.

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I would disagree. We attempt to affect the world in such a way that after we die we know that our influence has and will continue to change the world. After we die, those that know us and what we fought for in life will be negatively affected if our cause is not followed or has no impact. I suppose if I had no aspirations and lead a meaningless life then you would be correct. And my hope of leaving the world in a better state than I found it is not an illusion. I will work towards that end, and I hope I will see results which will lead me to believe with a high degree of certainty that after I am dead, my contributions will not have been in vain and useless.

But in another sense, yeah, you're right, 10,000 years from now I will probably not be remembered nor will anything I have done really matter, unless I really do a number like Jesus or Newton or something like that, but I'm looking for that kind of impact. (And by the way, I do think Jesus impacted the world more, but I think Newton's impact proved to be more useful.)

Re: atheists-- what is your source of hope?
 

Easy.

"Hmm, this intensive care stuff is lame. But life in general kinda kicks ass. I'd like to keep living."

Also, a counter question: If it were somehow proved beyond any doubt that no God exists...would you lose all hope? Would live no longer be worth living?

Will

Re: atheists-- what is your source of hope?
 

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Easy.

"Hmm, this intensive care stuff is lame. But life in general kinda kicks ass. I'd like to keep living."

Also, a counter question: If it were somehow proved beyond any doubt that no God exists...would you lose all hope? Would live no longer be worth living?

Will

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To me, in general life doesn't kick ass at all! Only knowing that it is finite keeps me going. I mean I can put up with existence for a while, but surely not for eternity. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: atheists-- what is your source of hope?
 

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Easy.

"Hmm, this intensive care stuff is lame. But life in general kinda kicks ass. I'd like to keep living."

Also, a counter question: If it were somehow proved beyond any doubt that no God exists...would you lose all hope? Would live no longer be worth living?

Will

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To me, in general life doesn't kick ass at all! Only knowing that it is finite keeps me going. I mean I can put up with existence for a while, but surely not for eternity. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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I had a can of Fosters once, I know exactly what you mean.

Mack

Re: atheists-- what is your source of hope?
 

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So my question to atheists is what is your source of hope? ... So when an atheist has an emergency, and sacrifices have to be made for the good of another, day in and day out, making your own future uncertain, where do you find hope, solace and joy, if you do not believe in a higher power?

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Belief seems to truly empower the faithful; in difficult times the strength of one's convictions may bring hope, solace, and joy. As an atheist, i can draw the same from my freinds and family; the people i love, my faith in them and in myself.

I do not see a need for a higher power to justify my existence or to give me a reason to live and struggle and suffer, to continue.

so:

my question for the faithful would be: Is a belief in a higher power needed for you to experiece hope? does the existance of that power give you hope, or is your hope for your god's existance?

either way you are not truly free... and there is a lot of hope, solace, and joy in freedom.

Re: atheists-- what is your source of hope?
 

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I had a can of Fosters once, I know exactly what you mean.

Mack

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Bro, how well put. I am a fair dinkum ozzie. I even have a non-ocker accent to prove it (most ozzies have non-ocker accents nowadays.... very multi-cultural we are.. a bit like the US 100 years ago, a bercail of civilisation revival). I tell you what, I came originally from a country famous for its beer and I nearly gave up on arriving to Australia. That's a few decades ago. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Fosters and the other few beers available were really a shocker. Any way it is improving.. many boutiques and interesting beer available here now. we still manage to really big sell the Fosters to the rest of the world [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I am more of a wine drinker, bro. Where every mouthful of every glass of every bottle of every type is different (as it get oxigenated). Semms craftier to me too. And you never know, gives me hope of sort. I mean the next mouthful may even be better.

[img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: atheists-- what is your source of hope?
 

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I am more of a wine drinker, bro.

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Now that's something I think both Australia and the US do well.

Mack

Re: atheists-- what is your source of hope?
 

I don't disagree with you. My feeling was that the OP was about hope for an afterlife.

Though a Zen master might say the true path to happiness is to have precisely zero aspirations.

Re: atheists-- what is your source of hope?
 

Alex Chiu's Eternal Life Device