Hope

You don't have to have faith to have hope. In fact, when dealing with life scientifically and methodically, there is more reason to hope for success in living a happy and creative life. Religious ideology lends nothing to the process of actually doing what is necessary to have hope for a better future. In fact, blind faith retards the development of practical skills to better deal with life's realities. Information and understanding through challenging inquiry are the keys to developing a hopeful life.

What is simply life is often perceived by human beings as disaster or catastrophe. The first benefit of integrating scientific knowledge with personal practice is the awakening of consciousness to the true nature of life, all life. Life is chaotic. As human animals with frontal lobes, we imposed order on life in order to increase our likelihood of surviving the inevitable and unpredictable. In some ways, we are like colonies of ants with a greater view of The Universe and power tools. When disaster comes, we regroup and rebuild. We are not immortal, but we have a vision of survival that sustains us through life-threatening events. The more skilled we get at creating artificial security, however, the more complacent we can become...until the next disaster awakens us. 

Our social nature also supports our hopefulness. We draw strength from our sense of community, of belonging to something greater than ourselves. The more inclusive and caring the community, the greater the hope it inspires. The greater our isolation, the less hope we have as individuals. Understanding social sciences can help us build communities which sustain hope in its individual members. Unfortunately, anti-scientific religious zealotry has interfered with this process for centuries by being violently divisive, while touting itself as The Way to Salvation.

I have lived with and without hope. Ironically, surrendering my hopes for certain concrete life achievements eventually led me along a path to a different and more sustaining hope in my life. Learning to accept the finite nature of my life increased my hopefulness and happiness. Learning to adjust my hopeful vision to a vision of moment-by-moment potential for good and happiness in my daily life with little regard for my past has brought me great peace and joy. It is the suspense of what lies around the corner of time in each moment which fuels both my optimism and my respect for what it actually means to be alive.