Serious question about thoughts on theists

[arewethereyet]

Again, I find this sad.

I think it's important for a person to have a sense of morality and hope that is internal.  If you have to be told to be either one it doesn't mean a whole lot beyond following some set of rules.

Part of the reason I don't follow the teachings of or about a god or gods.

It ok that you find it sad, I find the opposite.  What you describe is simply each person is their own "God".  You find and define your own morality and own hope.  Gives no basis to judge anything else except that it's not your personal preference.  You may categorize Auschwitz as evil and Hitler killing himself as a lack of justice, but that's all it is.  Personal opinion.  I believe there is something greater, something eternal.  This world is finite.  I see evidence that leads me to believe in something beyond what I see.  That brings me eternal hope.  As an atheist, you prescribe that each person derives their own meaning.  I find mine in this, fulfilling the existential requirement of meaning in the atheistic framework, yet you deem it sad.  I find that odd.

I start losing respect when Hitler gets pulled out of the bag of arguments for belief in God.

But, I digress.  When I was diagnosed with cancer, I had hope that the medical team I would find would be able to pull me through.  That hope was crucial for my prognosis.

When I had a heart attack I trusted (had hope, if you will) that the first responders and then the staff at the hospital would pull me through.  I was determined that they would and they did.  Again, my frame of mind was crucial to my recovery.

If you have to find those things in a god then you do you.  I don't have that need.  My 'faith' (if you will) is in my strength and the abilities of others.