Hm... Religion has the purpose of counterbalancing evil... yes... The Nigerians must have strong urge to be bad... (steal, cheat, be asshole to others...) but thru going to church, where they promote being nice, they can be cool and not be too much of a bad ass. Religion has the purpose of provinding hope... yes. The Nigerian society gives no hope. Their economy gives nothing to dream about. In Nigeria, a better future is unimaginable. But the church provides all that. But the 'Religion' here is restricted to 'Christianity in Nigeria'. I can't say the same for Christianity in Rome or Buddism in Moscow coz I've never been to Rome or Moscow... it's just that I was in Nigeria, and I felt the hardship and hopelessness thru my skin, and then I saw how everything became OK once I entered their Christian church. I really felt the work of the Christian church being done on the people. It really made them smile. Even just for awhile. -- What is value of hope? The value of hope can be as little as 'what's in the socks?' or it can be as great as 'what's my life worth?'. Depending on the people doing the hoping... What is the purpose of hope? To prevent people from dying tody and live to see tomorrow. To enhence the feeling of happiness or sadness. To set a specific time or event on the time table of our lives... Sort of like a break in a constant flow of time. How am I doing so far?
Perhaps I need to rephrase the question. Why is good about hope? Or, if anyone is inclined to, answer what is bad about hope? I'm afraid I'm not very clear on that answer. I don't understand how hope itself would prevent death. I can see how it may enhance happiness, as it is an optimistic idea, and I can imagine what you mean when you suggest it enhances sadness (I take you to mean you don't feel as sad, not that you feel more sad). This last bit about timing struck me as a little bizarre. How does hope affect the flow of time?
Q : How does hope prevent people from dying today and live to see tomorrow? A : Hopeless people like to kill themselves... but you give them hope, and they'll put down the gun. --- Q : How does hope enhance happiness and sadness? A : If you had hopes for something, and it actually comes true, how much happier would you be, compared to had you not hoped at all? You'd be much happier... so the feeling of happiness is enhanced by hope. But if it didn't come true... you'd be much more sad... --- Q : How does hope affect the flow of time? A : Usually, you hope for something in the future, right? So by hoping, you sort of put a flag on the timeline that's in the future. Sort of like marking your calender...
I'm cutting out the happiness/sadness thing, although you are correct, because I'm trying to understand the value of hope and in that aspect it appears to have as much negative value as positive. I still question how hope affects the flow of time, but I am supposing you meant something about goals instead. Is that about right? Hope prevents death as you have shown, and it is reasonable that people with no positive expectations would be more prone to suicide. So hope has some value. Where does hope come from?
Q : Where does hope come from? A : Desperation... -- Yes, hope as in goal. Suppose you have a meeting with a client this Friday. And you have small hope that he might place some order with you. Then, suddenly Friday becomes important, and your life narrows down to from now, to coming Friday. Otherwise time in our lives just keeps flowing... and flowing... without any breaks... and it's so boring. I'm not saying hoping is the ONLY way to break your time line, there are many other ways to do it, like planning a trip or things like that. Hoping is just one way...
Desperation is a feeling, usually a reaction to difficult circumstances, which is what I suppose you mean by "critical situation." Hope then, you seem to reason, is something of an emotional reaction to the desperation. Do we agree?
Hm... Emotional reaction... Ok, but can I add 'Calculated' in front of emotional? Hope is calculated emotional reaction to desperate situation. I added calculated, because... well, people don't make blind hopes... they make calculated hopes. If there is good chance they might get it, they raise hope. If they think it's a bust, then they lower the hope...
Surely, this can be the case, but I propose there are also cases in which it is not calculated. Cases in which it is much like the repression defense mechanism. When we are faced with awesome misfortune, we may feel compelled to repress the desperation somewhat by feeling hopeful. Actually, even relatively minor misfortunes manifest that type of response. As my vehicle begins to roll over, I hope not to perish in the accident and not to be too badly hurt because it is now apparent that I am in a tragically unavoidable situation. But, more importantly, we have learned something interesting: Hope is emotional. That means that the only people incapable of having it are psychopaths who don't feel emotions. So couldn't we now say that religion does not give us hope, but it reminds us that we have hope.
For me, my religious thinking doesn't really fit into what the rest of my family believes. I was raised in the Nazarene Church and learned alot about and from the Bible. I still read it all the time, but I haven't really found a religion that I fit into so I finally decided that I will believe, study, and worship as I see fit. I believe that cannabis is a gift from God to all mankind.
Hm... then you are suggesting that I'm a pshychopath... LOL... Jokes aside, yes... I think hope is emotional. It's an emotion that's been inside us since the beginning.
I wasn't questioning sanity, I was just pointing out that the only people who don't know hope are psychopaths because they literally have no feelings. Dexter Morgan is a good example of what I'm talking about, if you've ever watched Dexter.
I think I have other feelings, but the feeling of 'hope'... not sure. I've been trying to get the feeling of hope up since the first time I clicked your thread, and I keep denying myself of that feeling. I don't want to feel hope... I don't like it.
It's there, and it will activate when needed. You might not even notice it though, it depends on whether it happens while you're watching for it. You can certainly try to have a positive attitude, but it's kind of hard to do without having genuinely positive feelings. I don't have the answers regarding how to invoke this emotion or that, so I'm afraid I can't help you on that. ^ someone who has lost hope is not a psychopath.
I guess it's there, inside of me. Inside of you. Inside of everyone. And I'm sure the feeling of hope will rise, when I'm faced with certain situations. But as far as I recall, I've always chosen to kill that emotion. Once I was in bad situation, and I hoped things will turn out good, but as soon as I had hoped, I abandoned it.
So the problem is not that you need more hope, it is that you need less of whatever it is that causes you to abandon it. Why do you abandon it?