| Question Home |
Position:Home>Philosophy> Are all optimists believers in God or a "force" that exists?Question: Are all optimists believers in God or a "force" that exists!? Because, as optimists, you believe that things in life will turn out to be ok because of a certain force, a controlling power!. The optimist has faith, and believes that intervention(obviously divine) WILL occur!. So, are optimists thiests!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Not necessarily!. You are assuming that many people who consider themselves optimists are believing in a force that will make things turn out alright, and that's not really true!. There's no magical force for many optimists, they just simply choose to believe that things will turn out okay, with no reason behind it!. Furthermore, your argument is flawed, unless you want to consider pessimists theists as well!. By your reasoning, pessimists also must believe in a force that will make things turn out badly!. This force, in your reasoning, is divine, and the pessimist has faith in it, so pessimists are theists!. To your edit - It all depends on how you define irrationality!. If you mean it as anti-rational, and going against logic, then not necessarily, since if there is a 50% chance of a good outcome and 50% chance of a bad one, thinking the good one will happen does not contradict logical thought, it just isn't derived from it!. If it was a 49% chance of a good outcome, then that would be anti-rational!. There are different degrees of optimism, and I would agree that some are anti-rational!. Once again though, I would refer this line of reasoning back to pessimism!. If someone is a pessimist and believes for no real reason that the bad outcome with a 49% chance to occur will happen, he too is anti-rational!. Pessimism and optimism both have no roots in rationality, and yes, can sometimes cross the border into irrationality!.Www@QuestionHome@Com As an optimists and a non believer, I'm going to have to say no!. just because your an optimist doesn't mean that some "force" is going to line all your ducks up in a row!. i'm an optimist because i believe in myself and my abillaties, being self confident is a big part of it!. i also believe in the people that i depend on will do their jobs correctly!. I'm also one of those "silver lining" people, i find good things in the worst situations!. sometimes it's hard to stay positive, true believing in god would make things a hell of a lot easier, but i like to handle things myself!. Www@QuestionHome@Com i believe that God is the force that exists!. optimisim is the choice that God gives us!.Www@QuestionHome@Com No!. Optimists simply think that things will work out!. Even if you don't get the best result, it won't be nearly as bad as the pessimists predict!. Www@QuestionHome@Com NoWww@QuestionHome@Com |