Note:
This article is part of a series on what I have termed the 'atheist godless type' (AGT). This article's primary goal is to demonstrate that the godless world view is devoid of any semblance of hope.
The introduction to the series of articles.
Other articles in this series:
- The Atheist's Journey — They start from the same place and go nowhere.
- Atheist Godless Types (AGT)s — Different labels, same result.
- Atheist Tears — AGTs can claim no morality other than immorality.
- Atheists Keep Using That Word — The AGT world view is devoid of meaning.
- The Atheist's Motive — The motives of AGTs are ugly, discouraging, and pernicious.
- Atheist Glasses — AGTs who actually wear the spectacles of their world view don't live very long.
When one surveys the definitions of the noun 'hope' provided by the 2nd Edition of the OED and the unabridged MW dictionaries, it is immediately obvious that it involves at least an expectation and a desire. Further, they both make reference to 'hope' being centered on a person or thing.
When one then surveys the tenets of the godless, it is also immediately obvious that none of them admit of anything in which to hope: the world view of the atheist godless type is hopeless. As I have had cause to underscore throughout the articles of this series, this is yet another reason why it is all but entailed that the AGT vision could never be a civilization builder but will instead always be a civilization destroyer.
Any hope that an AGT might have will be rooted solely in the self or the 'self' of other flawed human beings, and is therefore, by definition, ad hoc in nature, i.e., no vision of hope for humanity whatsoever. Because the godless pattern of ad hoc meaning, morality, motive, and hope are all more-or-less identical, I won't rehash it here, but I encourage the reader to peruse the articles at the top of this page (in particular Atheist Tears and Atheists Keep Using That Word).
Could an AGT have a hope that is not ad hoc, one that the godless could present to the world at large as ineffable, inestimable, beautiful or lovely to behold? No. The one hope though that they could present is: the hope that the atheist godless tenets are not true. But then:
- In what (or who) would one be basing that hope?
- One would be hoping in opposition to what one affirms.
The more one looks into the seas of chaos that rage within and inhere the world view of the AGT which admit of no safe port in which to place one's hope or desire to navigate towards, it stands as a fetid testament to man's desire to live without accountability, to proclaim himself to be his own god.
What about the Christian vision for hope? Well, it satisfies all of the criteria of the definition, and in fact, it is telling that when one looks at the definition there are no references that can be tied to the godless view of the cosmos. In fact, the definitions are largely tied to the Christian vision, especially when one surveys the etymology of the word.
If one peruses the Christian perspective on how life is imbued with meaning, it is immediately obvious that all of them admit of mountainous vistas in which to hope, and further, that they are centered on a person, Christ. We are then led, ineluctably, to conclude that the godless view of the world is as devoid of hope as the Christian one is replete with it.