Dear Not_Now.Soon,

Sometimes we need hope, but how much better when we do not need it!

Certainty and faith are superior. Hope is the other side of fear, it means a probability that all will be well, but with it comes a probability that not all be well.

Having even a glimpse of God dispels all fear and all hope as well: with God in charge, nothing can go wrong. When we fail to remember, then we hope, but when we do remember God, we no longer hope, but sing: Your will be done, that is a certainty, not a hope: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ6Gkdb4_Bk

"...under the governance of the inhabitants of the Golgafrinchan Ark Ship B"

That's hardly surprising , since we're all descended from the crew and passengers on Ship B. Although, if surveyed, I suspect we'd all imagine we belong on A or C.

"..and nobody seems to have noticed."

and that's just the way the mice planned it.

//That's hardly surprising , since we're all descended from the crew and passengers on Ship B.//

Wasn't that Earth destroyed by the Vogons?

Looks like it's time for me to re-read the trilogy.

You'll need to go beyond the trilogy. I think its in the 4th or 5th book we find out that Dent et al have returned to to a new earth that was kindly supplied by the dolphins - the second most intelligent creature on old earth. We also find out that there in fact multiple earth's due to the glories of infinite probability and multiple timelines. The Vogons as is their want are trying to destroy all versions.

IF you're interested in the mechanics of multiple timelines, I saw a good doco on it recently, called "back to the future". It was like a TED talk (only entertaining) where a professor (or Dr) E. Brown explained how multiple time lines occur.

To Yuyutsu. You said "sometimes we need hope but how much better when we don't need it." I don't know of any time when we don't need hope. Perhaps I live in a different world then you do.

Hope is sometimes all we have. "This too shall pass" is a hope my mother taught me when confronted with a mild depression that runs in the family. You hold on to it knowing that the depression is only temporary, but it is a hope that you hold onto, because in the darker hours of life, you need hope, knowledge is biased and usually makes you believe in darker things to come. Hold out for hope, because there is never a time when it is not needed.

When hope is not all we have, it is still awelcome ingredient of life. We plan for life, for events, for missteps when we see them, but hope goes beyond what we know. It goes beyond rational thought because we can't know how everything pans out. In fact I would say that to have any faith in anything at all, you first need to have hope. An assurances without knowledge would be one discription of Faith. Hope exists even before the assurance. Hope due to faith, survives through difficult struggles of life.

I ask you. When is an example that hope is not needed. It is always needed. Just sometimes it's needed more then other times. That's all.

To David f.

I think this conversation has run it's course. My last point was made to make you think. Expecially in the light that you are angry at me for being something that you show yourself to be more forcefully being yourself. But your reaction to this point shows a double standard and makes you a Hippocrate. Make note of that and do better. Otherwise if you critize others to a standard you will not keep yourself nothing you say or do will be trusted. It may instead be thrown out before consideration because the source is untrustworthy. (The source being hypocritical).

That said there are a few ways out of this. I'm giving you this for your own benifit. If you lack experience and are hypocritical, the. You have no recourse except to accept your error and to apologize or make amends in some other way. If you have enough experience under your belt, then you can still apologize or make amends, but you can also say why what you say holds merit based on what you've seen. (Even if you fail to live up to your own standard).

You seem to lack experience with Christianity and hate it out of a conceptual vantage point rather then anything you've witnessed or seen. Based on that alone holding a double standard does you no favors. In the future if you are addressed in this way, don't make light of your double standard. Do something about it.