There is a catch phrase, which also describes my opinion, that I came up with one day when discussing hope in depth with a co-worker.

 “Faith is misguided hope”

When discussing anything in depth, I sometimes like to look up words related to the subject. This helps me see all that certain words encompass. I believe that during a discussion one can easily loose track/distort in one’s mind the true definition(s) of a word.

My favorite source Encarta: http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/hope.html

     The first definition suits just fine:

HOPE - transitive
want or expect something: to have a wish to get or do something or for something to happen or be true, especially something that seems possible or likely.

Theists will argue until they are blue in the face that faith and hope have no correlation because theists are certain of what their beliefs are, no doubt. I don’t doubt their certainty, I doubt the evidence they have for their certainties.

Some of my theist friends have shown disgust for this catch phrase. No doubt another attack on their belief system. I’m currently reading Breaking The Spell by Daniel C. Dennett

     The author asks a great question:

“What do we know about the future of religion? Consider five wildly different hypotheses:”

1. The Enlightenment is long gone; the creeping “secularization” of modern societies that has been anticipated for two centuries is evaporating before our eyes. The tide is turning and religion is becoming more important than ever. In this scenario, religion soon resumes something like the dominant social and moral role it has before the rise of modern science in the seventeenth century. As people recover from their infatuation with technology and material comforts, spiritual identify becomes a person’s most valued attribute, and populations come to be even more sharply divided among Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and a few other major multinational religious organizations. Eventually it might take another millennium, or it might be hastened by catastrophe – one major faith sweeps the planet.
   
   
2. Religion is in its death throes; today’s outbursts of fervor and fanaticism are but a brief and awkward transition to a truly modern society in which religion plays at most a ceremonial role. In this scenario, although there may be some local and temporary revivals and even some violent catastrophes, the major religions of the world soon go just as extinct as the hundreds of minor religions that are vanishing faster than anthropologists can record them. Within the lifetimes of our grandchildren, Vatican City becomes the European Museum of Roman Catholicism, and Mecca is turned into Disney’s Magic Kingdom of Allah.
   
   
3. Religions transform themselves into institutions unlike anything seen before on the planet: basically creedless associations selling self-help and enabling moral teamwork, using ceremony and tradition to cement relationships and build “long-term fan loyalty.” In this scenario, being a member of a religion becomes more and more like being a Boston Red Sox fan, or a Dallas Cowboys fan. Different colors, different songs and cheers, different symbols, and vigorous competition would you want your daughter to marry a Yankees fan? – but aside from a rabid few, everybody appreciates the importance of peaceful coexistence in a Global League of Religions. Religious art and music flourish, and friendly rivalry leads to a degree of specialization, with one religion priding itself on its environmental stewardship, providing clean water for the world’s billions, while another becomes duly famous for its concerted defense of social justice and economic equality.
   
   
4. Religion diminished in prestige and visibility, rather like smoking; it is tolerated, since there are those who say they can’t live without it, but it is discouraged, and teaching religion to impressionable young children is frowned upon in most societies and actually outlawed in others. In this scenario, politicians who still practice religion ca be elected if they prove themselves worthy in other regards, but few would advertise their religious affiliation – or affliction, as the politically incorrect insist on calling it. It is considered as rude to draw attention to the religion of somebody as it is to comment in public about his sexuality or whether she has been divorced.
   
   
5. Judgment Day arrives. The blessed ascend bodily into heaven, and the rest are left behind to suffer the agonies of the damned, as the Anti-christ is vanquished. As the Bible prophecies foretold, the rebirth of the national of Israel in 1948 and the ongoing conflict over Palestine are clear signs of the End Times, when the Second Coming of Christ sweeps all the other hypotheses into oblivion.

Now to my point! Even though the discussion with my friend which led me to my catch phrase went on in many directions, I realized that most Christian theists have great hope (what they call certainty) that the 5th scenario is most likely to happen.  From all 5 or more possible scenarios, they prefer the promise of heaven while many others suffer for eternity than some other alternatives.

Materialism and selfishness is frowned upon by Christianity, isn’t the desire to go to Heaven the most materialistic and selfish thing anyone could ever hope for?