How Do Athiests Find Hope?

After hearing about Rory's recent struggles, I was wondering something. How do atheists/agnostics find hope in life? What do you put your faith in? What if those things change? Do people honestly believe that they evolved from bacteria millions of years ago? I would argue that it takes an even bigger leap of faith to believe in that.

Well, there's no possible way that this thread could ever get out of hand, right?

padre wrote:

 How do atheists/agnostics find hope in life?

I find hope in the actions of fellow man.

padre wrote:

What do you put your faith in? What if those things change?

Education, Law, good will. Everything changes, life is transitory.

padre wrote:

Do people honestly believe that they evolved from bacteria millions of years ago?

Yep.

padre wrote:

Do people honestly believe that they evolved from bacteria millions of years ago?

Vatican has said that evolution theory is perfectly compatible with religion. So seriously - where's the problem??

littleguru wrote:



AndyC wrote:  padre wrote: Do people honestly believe that they evolved from bacteria millions of years ago? Yep.

QFT

Uhm, bacteria? Amoebas, sure, I thought bacteria were a separate evolutionary path.

Anyway, "believe" isn't the right word, belief implies unquestioning faith without evidence. How about "know"?

RoyalSchrubber wrote:



padre wrote: Do people honestly believe that they evolved from bacteria millions of years ago?

Vatican has said that evolution theory is perfectly compatible with religion. So seriously - where's the problem??

Reference pls?

SecretSoftware wrote:



RoyalSchrubber wrote:  padre wrote: Do people honestly believe that they evolved from bacteria millions of years ago? Vatican has said that evolution theory is perfectly compatible with religion. So seriously - where's the problem??

Reference pls?

Google.

As a Catholic, I can say this claim is true too.

padre wrote:

I would argue that it takes an even bigger leap of faith to believe in that.

What's the bigger leap in faith?

• What a book of questionable authorship[1] says, which has made a handful of testable claims, which have largely been debunked (Pi is not exactly "3", for example)
• What has been demonstrated through the scientific method and has been flat-out proven?

[1]I refer to the Old Testament.

SecretSoftware wrote:



RoyalSchrubber wrote:  padre wrote: Do people honestly believe that they evolved from bacteria millions of years ago? Vatican has said that evolution theory is perfectly compatible with religion. So seriously - where's the problem??

Reference pls?

Actually, the position of the Catholic church is more like - biological evolution is possibley the way that we ended up as we are today, but that that happened under Gods guidance. ref. In general, Catholicism realised a long time ago that arguing against what science discovers is a losing battle. Rather, they seek to place there moral framework on the use of science.

To all those who have faith in god doing you think that the religious leaders are infalliable as what is claimed??

W3bbo wrote:



littleguru wrote:  AndyC wrote:  padre wrote: Do people honestly believe that they evolved from bacteria millions of years ago? Yep. QFT

Uhm, bacteria? Amoebas, sure, I thought bacteria were a separate evolutionary path.

Anyway, "believe" isn't the right word, belief implies unquestioning faith without evidence. How about "know"?

You cannot 'know' - you can only 'believe you know' - according to Descartes' first meditation there can always be evil genius (or in this case God) behind the scenes. Modern analogy is the matrix world 

padre wrote:

After hearing about Rory's recent struggles, I was wondering something. How do atheists/agnostics find hope in life? What do you put your faith in? What if those things change? Do people honestly believe that they evolved from bacteria millions of years ago? I would argue that it takes an even bigger leap of faith to believe in that.

Why do we need hope?

What, exactly, does hope give you?

It's like a shiney, happy version of that pain you felt the first time a girl you liked went out with someone else.

"I hope she'll dump him and come back to me"

But she didn't, did she.

How do I find hope? By driving south for a few miles.

W3bbo wrote:



SecretSoftware wrote:  RoyalSchrubber wrote:  padre wrote: Do people honestly believe that they evolved from bacteria millions of years ago? Vatican has said that evolution theory is perfectly compatible with religion. So seriously - where's the problem?? Reference pls?

Google.

As a Catholic, I can say this claim is true too.

What happened to the book of Genesis? did they erase it from the Bible?

I thought you were an Atheist.