[thehumanist.com]

The middle-aged woman in a dark red sweater looked withdrawn and forlorn. I had been answering questions from the audience after presenting a talk called “Humanism As a Source of Inspiration and Meaning.” She raised her forearm just slightly to indicate she had a question. Her question—and my inability to satisfy her with an answer—haunted me for weeks.

“What about hope?” she’d asked.

Undaunted by the aura of hopelessness in her tone, I answered brightly: “The humanist worldview is filled with hope. We may be made of matter, but we decide what matters. It is through meaningful human action that a blank computer screen can become a poem, that slavery can become freedom. We can help others, alleviate suffering, and experience beauty. Humanism is not just the rejection of an idea. Humanism is an affirmation. It is a positive, clear-eyed response to our one world. It is saying ‘yes’, not saying ‘no.'”

“I don’t see how that helps me have hope,” she said, monotone. I went into high gear, and tried a different answer.

“Humanism is about possibilities. Without some grand supernatural plan or destiny, the future is open. Possibility means the door for hope and change and goodness is open. Possibilities can lead to progress, in the world and in our individual lives. It is a positive psychological message. We have choices in how to shape our lives. We can live with caring and compassion. We can invest ourselves in worthy goals. We don’t need anything supernatural for that. The fact that we can try to change ourselves, other people, and the world—and make it a better place through reason and compassion—is a fundamental wonder of being human, and can be celebrated. It is a cause for hope, and wisdom.”

“Okay,” she said. She was polite but unconvinced.

I don’t know what personal trauma, life events, or innate characteristics made the questioner long for hope, but clearly she’s not alone in seeking to satisfy this deep human need. Religion, in part, peddles hope. Hope also wins elections and sells products. The question is—for someone who is currently without hope—are the kinds of secular answers I proffered going to be enough on a personal, emotional, and psychological level?

I realize now that philosophical concepts may be too abstract for some who feel despondent. She needed a personal answer. What about hope for her? Humanism has a solid foundation. We have secular dreams of a better tomorrow, and a track record of positive social change. But do we have answers on a personal level? Do we have a fulfilling substitute for “God loves you” or, for the bereaved, “don’t worry, you’ll meet again someday in heaven”?

So let’s admit straight out: humanism is not about hope. It’s about facing the world as it actually exists and making the best of it. It’s about looking this real world in the eye and, using imagination and initiative, building castles in the sand, not castles in the sky. It’s about finding goodness within the spectrum of what’s real and what’s possible. And in facing such truths, humanists don’t look outside nature for salvation; they don’t seek change through wish fulfillment. This perspective is not a limitation. It’s a motivator. It’s the ground for positive action and results.

There are other approaches as well. A naturalistic, scientific worldview has led to medical marvels such as surgical anesthesia and life-saving antibiotics. In the same manner, properly used psychoactive medications can be thought of in a positive light as one tool among many to help relieve mental suffering and stress, find inner calm and happiness, and help individuals and their families to enjoy better lives.

Reflecting about the woman who asked, “What about hope?” I realize now that what she needed most was not just ideas, but love, broadly understood. She needed to feel loved by a person, family, or community. Conversely, she might find meaning in providing unconditional love to a person, pet, or worthy goal.

Ideas are the groundwork of the humanist lifestance, and are valued. But I now feel that the best response would have been to ask the woman to meet me for coffee afterwards, and then listen to her. To care. To show by action that there is the possibility of finding a person or a community that listens, supports, and tries to help with appropriate suggestions. A community that strives to provide encouragement—not with fairy tales, but with a whole realm of positive, real-world, personal human responses. That is the humanist way.

Hope is what kept me from using one of then-hubby's numerous hunting guns on my head after my stroke at age 38.....

The very question is hopeful.
But irrelevant.
Hope is NECESSARY. Without it we can forget about the "pursuit of happiness!"
Hope is the future.
Without the future we are morose and despondent.
Is hope realistic?
Beside the point.
Hope is real.
So ignore all the grouches who say it isn't. They're wrong.

Hope is a desire for something you'd like to see happen. It doesn't require evidence and has nothing to do with a higher power or religion.

Hope is a feeling of wanting. There's nothing unrealistic about that.

As a lifelong optimist, hope is important.

This is your life, not a rehearsal. Don't give up.

In the Greek myth of Pandora, Hope was one of the curses which got released when she opened the box (originally it was a sealed jar). The idea of hoping for the impossible seemed like a curse from an ancient Greek point of view.

However, virtually all progress and advances in civilization also sprang out of hope, and often was the result of success against massive odds.

Hope is more like a two edged sword. Knowledge and education helps sharpen each persons individual sword. However, the sword can always cut both ways and it is much easier to destroy something than it is to build something. Humans are a lot like crabs. If a crab starts to climb out of the crab bucket all the other crabs will try to grab on and drag the crab back in. So, most crab dont' get out, but once in a great while one does. The one that does is like the fulfilled hope.

I hope it is...

Hope without action is a soul killer! If you want positive results then you have to do something more than just hope. I hoped for 15 years that my marriage would get better. Only after I left did I realize just how fucked up my life had become. But once I took action everything got much better.
Again, hope without action slowly kills you.

Existential angst and hope don't really go together, do they? I have much hope but I don't just go around hoping.. I go out and do something to justify my hope in things...

Hope so, not being sarcastic

I do not suffer from existential angst, and I generally am a very hopeful individual.
I'm always hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.

I sure hope so.

During my early travels between idealism and cynicism a few decades ago, I whizzed past realism so quickly that I didn’t get a good look at it. However, as I gained confidence and power I was able to see it more clearly. I now try to spend most of my time there.

If existential angst is the belief that there is no meaning in one's life, then I am still left with the question as to what "meaning" is. That is, what is the meaning of meaning?

I am convinced that there isn't any metaphysical basis for questions such as "who am I, why am I here, and what is the meaning of life." But I am left unbothered by it. I think that there is an ultimate choice one makes: whether to live or die, voluntarily for the moment, that is. Even if the choice itself may be an arbitrary one, having made the choice to live, I create my own artificial meaning. And all the hopes and despairs that come with that choice.

A given series of events has more than one possible outcome. I have a preference as to which outcome will be realized. That is hope.

Hope for what? What is causing the existential angst? Hope for happiness? Sure, why not? Hope to find hidden purpose for life. Not so much. That's more somthing that you decide.

There is no justification for hopeful optimism, or for pessimism .... plan for your objectives and how you will achieve them ... the plan may have to evolve, but the overall objective remains ... unless you decide to change it.

As my Dad used to say...

Hope in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up quicker!

And... As I have reminded employees at times when I have asked when something will be done and they say, "I hope to have it done soon!"

Hope is not a strategy!

I don't think that hope strictly needs a religious justification. It is simply a burning desire for something to transpire in a specific way. I will say that the natural skepticism attached to secular-humanist thinking certainly does temper and to some degree curb hope, but it doesn't, and in my opinion rightfully so, extinguish hope entirely. It's just that now we raise our hope from our understanding of probability, random chance, and the natural workings of the universe, rather than from the childish belief in an essentially magical being that is capable of anything and everything and is intimately connected with every facet of our lives.

Hope is wanting something to happen or be true, while understanding that it may not happen or be true.
I hope I pass my test, but I understand it's possible for me to not do well on my test.
I hope my spouse is loyal, while I don't have a reason to think they are not, it is possible for them to cheat.
Hope isn't a mystical concept, it is a rational understanding of the possible outcomes.

i don't see a religious justification for hope. i wouldn't go to a heaven where i couldn't be in charge of the music and the menu! but secularly, justification is subtle, and arguable, but there is always living on in the memories of those who knew us, doing as much good as possible whether anonymously or not, and hoping that king was right that the arc of history bends toward justice.

g

This question is pure filler material, worth significantly less than the bits that bring it to the page. For as long as you're alive, seek out things that make you feel content, and do so while harming no one. That's really the point of this whole shebang, yanno.

Why do we , as atheists . agnostics . waste so much of our time discussing religion ?

Hope for the short term might be rational. Eventually everybody dies. Humanity will go extinct. Earth will be consumed by a red giant Sun. Entropy will reach maximum and the Universe will be "heat dead".