Existentialism 4: Is Prayer Just Hope?
Robleh Wais 8/12/12
Hope and Prayer like the previous human
concepts we�ve discussed are our attempt to place a sheet of meaning on the
meaningless. Let�s look at these two in turn.
What
is Hope?
If
you feel that you want something in the future to become true, this can be
described as an instance of hope.� Yet,
we all know that hope is more than this.�
If you depend on another to perform a guarantee, that other has promised
to you, that too is hope. �If you feel
that something that has happened in the past that you might have been a party
to and your being involved could affect you badly, then you hope it doesn�t
come to light. That too is hope.� Suppose
it was scheme to cheat someone? But now you and this friend are enemies and
he�s threatened to sue you if what you knew could hurt him.� You would very much have recourse to
hoping.� You can see, it�s not just
having a passionate concern with a future event, but many causes can lead to
hope or better put hoping.� Hope has many sources to our human
lives.� Hope seems to me to be an
abstracted conception of the human condition.�
It is perceptual and at the same time conceptual in the sense of an idea
we humans share.
Let
us go further.� If you are a compulsive
person that can�t control your compunctions, you might hope to stop this
behavior.� In this sense, you want to
control your behavior, you desire to change it.�
Is that hope?� Think of addicts,
rapists, murderers, and others that hope to stop themselves from committing
acts of wrongdoing.� They have hope,
don�t they?
As
we can see, hope the idea, can have varying meanings.� I can name a number of mental states of mind
that describe hope.� But, this isn�t
really necessary.� I will state what I
believe it is.� Before doing this, let me
give some reasons why.� I have examined
my own emotions during the course of life and found repeatedly when I felt this
mental state of mind it was driven by events in my present circumstances.� � I noted
that every time I felt this sensation, I was in a state of longing for
something. It didn�t matter what I desired.�
It could be a woman most beautiful, or more money, or new place to live,
or that my student debt repayments would lessen.� It didn�t matter at all, what the object of
my hope was, it was always driven but the conditional state of my life, at the
time.� From this I concluded that hope is
determinate and conditioned by the state of the hoper in the real world.� Or to put it another way; we hope when we need
or desire. Now,I�m ready to state what
hope is at least from a rational materialist viewpoint.
Hope is a
persistent idea that human beings have during their living existence.� It is also consistent, and it is a condition
of mind.� It is continual and remains
with any individual mind until death.
This
might seem oversimplified, if not reflected upon.� We always hope.� We are continually engaged in this process of
interacting with our external world and desiring it to be what we imagine it to
be.� Right now, I have a chest cold, and
hope it�ll get better.� I hope for this
desire to be granted?� I mean by persistent, we always have this feeling
of the world working in the best sense for us.�
Yet it usually doesn�t.� Not even
for the rich, powerful filthy dogs of humanity.� And yes, the
final hope is not to die.� Think of
yourself at your end and, I am sure you will be hoping to live on.� Though,
that isn�t always true, many long to die and commit suicide, but still they are
longing for a wish fulfilled, are they not?
What
is Prayer?
Praying
is different than just hope.� Prayer is
directed and it is aimed at someone or something.� Prayer is ritual too.� You pray to a God or Gods or even a
principle.� This is not simply hoping for
an outcome, no it is much more than that.�
Devotees pray for their deity to love them and improve their lives or to
convert others to their beliefs.� Prayer
is a personal act between the believer and the deity in which he/she
believes.� This act of prayer can be
personal or in unison with others.� It
can even be a meditative act, but is always directed outward at some
untouchable deity. �So, the simple act of
hoping and praying seem to be different instances of the human mind activity
which can be summarized with the English word wishing.
Hope
and Prayer
They
are not really different things.� When
you pray for the grace of a God(s), you are hoping for an outcome.� When you just hope that the $200 dollars you
bet on 6-4-5-7-3-1-0 in the lottery comes out, it doesn�t matter what makes it
true you are held in this state of suspended want.� The only difference is to whom the burning
desire is directed.
Hope
and Prayer are the same manifestations of human desire.� One is directed and defined by beliefs and
the other is unbridled and desperate.�
The conclusion is they are both without substance and fail us.� To hope without reason is painful and to pray
to a non-existent deity will leave you unfulfilled.� Both feel the fervent desire that is created
by a brain state in our emergent minds, but both are chimeras.� The rare luck that one achieves after hoping
or praying is just that: luck.� Since luck
is random and unpredictable, good fortune from it, should never to be hope for,
or prayed to.� But way too many do just
that.
Conclusion
I
think you know what the conclusion is. Hope and Prayer are human faults we
have that cause so much pain for our consciousnesses.� We must live without hope and never prayer to
anything, God, Idol, or even a principle.�
Yet, why do we have hope and prayer?�
Is it because we live in despair often?� Unfavorable conditions do give rise to
wishing for them become more appealing.�
But there are people that wish for negative things, that long to die
when depressed or in pain.� And those
whom long for more wants when in good stance.�
They are insatiable in their yearnings.�
So, again why is hope a part of human psyches?� I really can�t explain that.� I do argue to live without hope, and
definitely never pray to anything, being or even principle.� This is what existentialists call living
courageously.�