Track 8: Hope
Instrumental
This is a splendid little 2-minute acoustic guitar solo. It’s an excellent demonstration not only of Alex’s playing ability, but, perhaps even more so, his song-writing ability.
The song title is drawn from the chorus of the following track, Faithless, and works as a nice counterpart to that following song, emphasizing the dichotomy between a lack of religious faith, but an abundance of hope.
I think that penchant for hope is what sets apart many non-theists and agnostics from the traditional atheist. I’m sure my atheist friends would bristle at that statement, but I think it’s true, from my many discussions and debates on the subject. True atheism seems, at its core, to be devoid of any hope for the future, any hope for something grander than what we can sense with our eyes, ears, and brains. It seems empty of any hope that maybe, just maybe, there is more to reality than what we can measure empirically. It seems to give no value whatsoever to such concepts, as it deems them unknowable, and therefore irrelevant. And when you try to explain that there is no harm in hope, they don’t seem to get it, or, at least, counter with arguments like “I could hope for a million dollars to drop from the sky into my hands, but it’s so far out of the realm of possibility, it is pointless to hope for it, and will only lead to disappointment.” The problem, of course, with this argument is that hope for wider realities and the potential for an afterlife isn’t, by it’s very nature, an empirical or physical thing, like money. Furthermore, if nothing exists beyond the death of our own consciousness, there won’t be any consciousness there to be disappointed! This, more than anything else, vindicates and endorses the inherent harmlessness of hope. In addition, this sort of hope can be a tremendous support in dealing with the vagaries, difficulties, and obstacles of life. Some turn to alcohol, some turn to nicotine or caffeine, some become co-dependent, and some turn to anti-depressants. But some turn to hope.
2 comments:
It's nice to see you turn your all-knowing eye toward something other than Christianity for a change. We need a update on your life by the way, haven't had one in a while.
You should visit the religion forum on the Rush Message Board. I go head to head with atheists all the time there. So it's not just Christians who get my overpowering intellect. :)
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