They say that Hope springs eternally. But what is hope?
Is hope just an expression of doubt and a call for a higher power to intervene on your behalf.

I put 20 cents in the pokie machine and I hope to get 100 dollars. ( hope is a wish for luck )

I open a business and I hope that I get the customers I need to stay open. ( if the research was done correctly there would be no doubt therefore no need to hope)

Does hope set us up for delusion? Is it the "starter" for delusion?

Is Hope a 4 letter word?

Any one?

( shit!!! I hope some one reads this) :D

Hope is like checks and balance for the human mind. Hope is what keeps us sane during times of need, it is like our mind's defenses when we are in need or in trouble. For example, solitary confinement, to keep yourself from going sane you keep telling yourself, hoping, that you will be let out soon. It's a natural perimeter or defense set up by your brain when your enviroments around you become unfavorable or hurtfull.

so....a posiive reaction to the unknown. Hoping that the unknown will turn out ok?

How do you think "hope" and "faith" compare?

yeah!

I hope you do become the greatest artist alive. ( true?)
I hope you become a great artist ( true?)
I hope you are a great artist ( True but ignorant?) Ignorant because I obviously don't know if you are or not but hope that you are.

I think what i mean to sy is that It is my hope for you and shows no regard for who you are or what you are capable of. So therefore my hope fro you is a delusion.
For instance I can Hope that the world will find peace form war and violence. Is this a delusion? I suppose it is if I am not prepared to do anything to actually achieve that which is hoped for.

The world hopes for peace but seems reluctant to do the work necessary to achieve it.

So is the world deluding itself with it's hope of peace?

Could it be said that Hope is the greatest time waster known to mankind?
In that Hope is not going to get a musician to greatness only hard work will do that.

But a great talent is wasted if it just sits there hoping to be and actually being to be, so to speak

"Hope" is just emphisizing the significance of a possible positive outcome instead of a negative. There's nothing wrong with hope alone, but one can easily learn to supplant hope with delusion. Then you have troubles.

There is no doubt that hope is essential to us and maybe that is why it can be so problematic.
I think possibly that we humans are basically gamblers in that because we believe that nothing is certain then all is in some way a gamble. Hope is the feeling that allows us to survive uncertainty but it also has the potential to paralyse us in to actually doing nothing.
I also agree with everything posted so far. :)

Hope is the mind being positive. Even a negative person has hope. When someone looses hope they realise they are decieving themselvs and wether they hope or not they have no control over what actually happens so they give up on hope. In the end all hope is, is wishful thinking, and how many of you have had your wished come true.

-if you have a 50% chance at makeing the right choice there is a 90% chance you will choose wrong :p

I don't think that because someone has "hope" means that they believe they have a degree of control over the situation. Quite the opposite. When I have hope, it means I like the idea of a positive outcome, so I tend to think more on the positive. WHat this says to me, though, is that in order to have hope, you must first acknowledge that you are NOT in control, and that there is a possible negative outcome of a situation.

Hope itself isn't that powerful a force. It's a preference. The amount of energy you put into "hoping" and whether or not you allow yourself to replace your "hopes" with "beliefs" or with "faith" that make a difference.

I didnt mean to make it sound like hope = control what i ment was that some people when they are hopeing for a positive outcome and the outcome is not positive they give up or loose hope becuase they see that their hopes were in vain. If someone is at the recieving end of too many negative outcomes when they hope for positive ones they tend to give up on hope as it is a waste of time and energy and emotion/feelings or what have you.

Well, once again, it sounds like these folks are less hopeful and more faithful.

Could it be said that Hope is the greatest time waster known to mankind?
In that Hope is not going to get a musician to greatness only hard work will do that.

But a great talent is wasted if it just sits there hoping to be and actually being to be, so to speak

If one works very hard to achieve something, then one hopes that the hard work will pay off.

Jan Arden.