Aug 27

Aug 27 Can An Atheist Have Hope?

Dad’s terrace.
Holidays, 2018.

Maybe this question is a bit shocking, but my mind usually throws me pearls like this so I can stretch my reflecting boundaries during my walks to the Heath.

It’s not a secret that I tend to stay in my head quite often –hence the long walks.

Started to process the answer to my own challenging question, as I was walking my way back home that evening.

We live in times of darkness… It’s not a secret that we may struggle with finding hope sometimes.

Sometimes we may doubt whether hope is there at all.

For centuries, religion has been the main source of hope. It lifted spirits in the midst of darkness.

And hence, my challenging question:

Can an atheist have hope?

The answer came simply: hope and religion are not necessarily related to each other.

This picture is taken at my dad’s. He’s atheist. Highly scientific. He believes there is an answer for everything and if there’s not, it is because it hasn’t been found yet.

And not surprisingly, his approach on life is rather pragmatic:

Learn from the tough times and enjoy the good times.

Everything is temporary.

I remind myself that sentence every time I’m in a rut.

It brings me hope.

Because it’s true that nothing lasts forever, but the lessons we learn from it will stay with us forever.

So I guess, we all have the ability to hope. There’s no right or wrong. Only a different perspective towards the same emotion.

And I thought it was a good start to bring light in the darkness.

However, hope needs to come from within.

Clinging our hopes onto external factors or figures, makes this hope unsustainable.

The external is always changing and we can’t control it. It is then, when frustration kicks in.

And eventually we lose hope.