i disagree with you. Optimists see the best in people events and always give people the benefit of the doubt and hope for the best.Hopeful people take the bad with the good (something optimist have trouble with) and have a faith-built hope that God will do what needs to be done.

Boy… To a great extent, the only person who ‘gets’ optimism is the poster. To their comments on optimism I will add, optimism and hope often go hand in hand. They are part and parcel of a whole outlook on life. Optimism isn’t unrealistic, shallow or self-centered. Christ was an optimist, if you will. He believed in the best in all people, always and took the path of the light and goodness for at it’s heart, optimism and hope ARE goodness. Optimism is not unrealistic. It acknowledges mistakes but learns from them. It says that you are not a bad human being but a flawed one who has good traits that far outweigh the bad. It sees into even the blackest heart and sees light. It is faith in the ability of people to overcome selfishness, self-centeredness and negativity. It is faith in yourself to do the same. True optimism does not say the “world revolves around me”. It says that together we ALL can make the world a better place for all people. It is the antithesis of selfishness. Hope is tied into optimism when you realize that without optimism, there is NO hope because hope by definition implies that you see the best in people and situations, the light at the end of the tunnel, if you will. Hope and optimism give all people the will to survive when the world seems to be bearing down on them by saying “I am strong. I can survive this. There is a better life waiting for me so long as I am alive and trying.” Hope and optimism lead a parent to raise children who can take up the torch and make the world a better place. Hope and optimism define what it means to be a truly great human being and are the foundations for all of the world’s great religions because they say that all people, no matter how flawed can find God.

I think our fellow BB posters (although I don’t think Therese) are mistaking the spirit in which my original post came from.
It was based on an article by Bnet’s own Patton Dodd …
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/222/story_22246_1.html
… who had just interviewed Bishop Bernard Jordan, a believer in The Secret and “the laws of attraction,” and found himself intensely skeptical as a result.
Dodd made the same distinction that the Rev. Dr. Michael Foss does in Therese’s previous post — there IS a difference between optimism (or as Foss calls it, wishful thinking) and hope. Optimism is of this world — and our expectations of this world are too often crushed, by depression or otherwise. Hope is otherworldly, in the best sense of that word.
Ironically, as I have expressed religious skepticism numerous times in my posts on BB, one might consider me a perfect candidate for The Secret. Not at all. I am neither an agnostic nor an atheist, just a very lapsed Catholic struggling to figure out how to filter my intense spirituality through the noise of organized religion.
And with all due respect to the earnestness of the earlier poster, Jesus of Nazareth was not, IMHO, an optimist. He was a source of endless hope (indeed, for Christians, the Source of Hope) but Jesus very clearly saw and experienced the suffering of the world so many times — including with Lazarus, in the Garden of Gethsemane and throughout the Passion, and finally on the Cross itself.
Pangloss would never have cried out “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,” as Candide’s optimistic philosopher believed our earthly realm was “the best of all possible worlds.” But Jesus, of all people, knew (and in my belief system, knows) otherwise.

That’s very fascinating. I have often viewed Hope, as the world sees it, as wishful thinking and Optimism as being positive minded when one is tempted to be otherwise. This means I disagree with you, Larry. I believe you are mischaracterizing Optimism. Perhaps because you are confusing the definition of an Optimist with the process of Optimism.
Optimism is of this world – that much I agree with you. But it is positive thinking in the face of adversity and negativity. It is choosing to focus on the upbeat instead of focusing on the downbeat. This is not a superficial process. In fact, it is a very difficult and intellectual process because emotions would lead us to focus on life’s lemons instead of making lemonade out of those lemons. Hope, as far as the world defines it, is wishful thinking, because . But with the influence of the Spirit, Hope is a roadmap to success. As Paul has taught, hope if faith in things unseen. Not imaginary things, but things seen with the Spirit. In my experience, Optimism gives me Hope that I will succeed despite constant failure. And Optimism is the reason why have not lost Hope.
I do have Hope in Christ, but Optimism is something I have to work at. This is not a process of superficially proclaiming things to be happy when they are not. It is a matter of focusing on the positive things when temptation would have you focus on the failures instead. I find that if I am more faithful I am empowered better to be more optimistic. I see them as being hand in hand and I would imagine that Christ, who saw so much good in all of God’s children, has a fair amount of optimism in his heart.
~Douglas
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☆ The Splintered Mind – Overcoming Neurological Disabilities With Lots Of Humor And Attitude

BTW, Rod Dreher (“Crunchy Con”) has linked both of your most recent topics, hope vs. optimism and Mother Teresa’s suffering, in a post today on his blog:
“Verily, verily I say unto you, Mother Teresa of Calcutta is the patron saint for a world that has lost its ability to believe, but hungers desperately for belief.”
http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2007/08/mother-teresas-suffering.html

Douglas:
Did you read the Patton Dodd piece?
Because if you did, you would see that your stance sounds an awful lot like The Secret — whether you meant it to or (I’m guessing) not.

Larry,
The Secret was never a secret to many…It is the Law of Attraction. there are any Laws that rule our lives. the Law of cause and effect for one. otherwise known as Choices.
When people recognize that their lives are as they think them, that every thought is a form of prayer…and then realise that to truly live as Christ, one has to change their thoughts. Not easy-damn hard. Believe me as one who struggles daily with doubts. However, I will never give up for I kow that there is a reason for me being here or I would have checked out many moons ago.
When I read what some people have written about Mother Theresa, i was so sad. We all have had a crisis in faith. We all have had that smile on our face as if nothing was wrong but deep inside we question. She was a very holy woman and deservse all of our respect.
Namaste’

Deb:
If you think that The Secret and Christianity are one and the same, you are (IMHO) tragically mistaken.