Who is more pessimistic, and why?
Support your vote in the comments.
Example: Believers/Non-believers; Men/Women between (age range), etc...
I picked non-believers because pessimism is natural, and can avoid big let downs. Maybe it's just my experience, but I've seen some religious people become irrationally optimistic about things that may or may not happen. With non-believers, I don't see it so much as pessimism, but as realism.
The idea that peopel will not act in a "moral" way without religion is just totally false. On a per capita basis, Atheists are very under represented in prisons whiel believers are over represented.
Believers tend to assume that due to "the fall of man" that the nature of humans is just plain evil by nature.
No human is evil truly evil. (Some exceptions) To be told that some people being different is bad, defiantly is depressing.
I don't think being a believer or non-believer effects whether or not people are more or less pessimistic than the personality or life experiences of the person
Respectfully, exclusion and inclusion can always be applied on a case-by-case. People are influenced by various internal and external factors. However,
the question is not asking who is or isn’t, (because) of their belief or lack thereof, but who “in your opinion” is, and why.
yeah but to me the question is like asking whether people who play basketball are more or less pessimistic than those who dont, even if theres a correlation i don't think the activity directly causes the pessimism
I chose Believers, because of the number that believes in the end times, that believes the world is inherently wicked/sick/sinful, and that humanity is doomed. However, I also believe that Believers are more optimistic than non-believers because of their belief in salvation, heaven, and trust in god/s. I see non-believers as realistic, not pessimistic and not optimistic.
I consider myself a realist who is optimistic about certain things, but my optimism isn’t based on fairy tales, fantasy, or other delusions.
I said believers, but I would need a better definition of what it is that we're pessimistic about because theists by their nature are unrealistically optimistic about many things. They're optimistic about death not being the end, the invisible caretaker in the sky, the influence of prayer and atheist are skeptical (I wouldn't say we are pessimistic, just realistic.) I still pick them because they are also unrealistically skeptical to the point that I could call it pessimistic about global warming, evolution, the age of the Earth, gay rights, Geological science that denies a global flood event. The list keeps going and going. If that's not what you were talking about, please explain.
paul1967: Sometimes I ask general questions to elicit general answers, and or to leave room for respondents to frame their answer how they choose without predefined conditions. This may be hard for some, but not you (based on your answer). I believe pessimism is different from skepticism, but both can be difficult to determine without clarification.