Hope as a Hook for Religion -one of three subtopics at our most recent think tank – here are the notes from the conversation:
Believing in a positive outcome. Hope is the outcome, not the beginning.
-Many religions are very controversial and violent, hope is not. Except in Hinduism, Buddhism, etc, which doorways to hope. Why the difference?
-How do you pin down hope? How do you access it when it’s not a tangible thing?
-Hope is a world view
-What’s the difference between wish and hope? Wish has no time, Hope has a destination
-In ASL, the sign for Hope starts from within us, where faith and wish are directed above us.
-Hope as currency: A woman who was persuaded to give all of her money to a Televagenlist’s ministry and when she won the lottery with her last dollar, they said it was the grace of God, blessing her for giving all she had.
-Hope can be capitalized upon: it can be changed, morphed, and used to do what you need it to.
-Hope and Faith are cousins: Faith = negative? Hope = positive?
-Humanity: Hope is distinctly human
-Do animals have hope?
-Are there different levels of hope? 7 levels of Hell, 7 levels of Heaven? Is hope = heaven?
-Religions are all on the path to the top of the mountain, but they’re fighting along the way.
-Easy to wish to be good, helpful, loving people. Yet it’s hard to hope for it.
-Is Hope a bi-product of dependency?
-Hope as a means of survival, the only way some can survive is by having hope:
-”Consider the lily’s of the valley…” –> Lily’s will always survive there, because of the nutrients they’ll always be taken care of. This verse is meant to inspire hope via a survival story.
-Herman Melville’s idea of sharks: they’ll always find a way to get by.
-Tammy Fey, and like minded televagenlists manipulating hope in order to meet their standard of survival.
-Do you have hope when you’re on your last leg of survival? –> Deserted Island scenario.
-Be careful with your hope: Blind faith is dangerous
-It’s a commodity, precious: not to be given away indiscriminately
-Soul is your peaceful inner space.
-If all our needs are met, there’s no need to Hope: Need vs. Want. If it came from lack or yearn, then it’s less discriminate where to go with hope.
-Hope linked to fear. risk.
-Religion as a way to manage hope
-Hope is a choice.
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