My Glimmer of Hope

I often hear arguments from Christians when confronted with a conversation with an atheist about morality and hope. Basically they will ask the atheist, "Without the Bible for guidance how can you discern right from wrong?" and also, "Living a life without Jesus is living a life without hope. How can you live a life where there is no hope?"

First of all I will state that I have asked myself these questions in regards to atheists, though I never had an actual conversation with an atheist at that time. There aren't many atheists in my neck of the woods. There are Baptists, Methodists, Catholics and Christian Reformed. But, I had also been taught that the only place we can gain an understanding of what is right and wring is from the Bible and the laws and that God's laws superseded man's. I was also taught that to live a life without walking with Jesus and accepting him as your personal lord and savior was to live a life without hope. Because to a Christian, an atheist is actively choosing to go to hell. So, how could they have any hope when their only possible future is damnation? And why would they even care to live a moral life, if not to get into heaven?

Standing on the outside of Christianity looking in, as someone who once thought the things and wondered the things I just described, I can see a lot of problems with these assertions. Like, why would someone live a moral or immoral life based on an afterlife setup they don't even believe in? Why should I fear an eternity in hell? I don't believe hell exists, so why would I fear it? That usually opens up another dialogue about whether or not something is or isn't true just because someone chooses to believe in it or not believe in it and then that goes to whether or not there is reason to believe it and so on.

The point of this post is that I am learning that as you deconstruct yourself and free yourself from religion and the Bible, there are some complex emotions and there are some things that are more difficult to let go of and it just takes some time. 

For example, I spent a little time questioning the hope thing. Hope. Hope for what? And the joy thing. I had always been taught that we rejoice because of gifts from God and that all beautiful things are God's glory and he needs to be thanked for all of the amazing things. It feels a little odd not having anyone to thank or to attribute the beautiful things. And if there's no afterlife, where is the hope?

It occurred to me this morning. We live a moral life because of our integrity, for our legacy and for the future of our existence as a species. We have hope because of the wonder of it all. What is to fear? I am a piece of the universe. I am made up of amazing things like the stars and the planets and the moons. I am here now and some day I won't be. But, I get to know that I was here. I existed. I was a piece of the universe expressing itself as Jessica. I will be an ancestor. That's is enough.

The idea of everything being temporary is actually kind of exciting. God or no God, life is special. It is amazing. Being alive for a little while is pretty cool. Being a part of this planet is pretty lucky. Of everything that could have happened, I got to exist. Me! It makes me realize something that has actually given me the tools to overcome some major anxiety in my life. Instead of banking on God to bail me out of tough times and assuming any time I am not struggling is God allowing it and every time I am struggling is a lesson from God in trusting him I now understand that the ups and downs are simply part of life. Everything is temporary. Everything! Simply temporary. Those little inconveniences and tough times are largely trivial. Because being alive on a spinning rock hurling through space against all odds is pretty special.