A litmnus test for these may very well be an ingrained sensibilty to some people... but it also may require being "plugged-in" to spiritual matters.... either way, self examination can help to develop a discerning eye towards these abilities, in believer and even non-beleivers.
I think your choice of words was very apt here: "plugged in to spiritual matters". Although i respect the right for anyone to believe what they want, i liken belief in God/gods to belief in the material reality of "the Matrix". You have to be plugged-in to fully appreciate that it "IS" reality. In fact, it looks so much like reality, that people are willing to spend their whole lives in it, and argue that it is in fact real. Like the character Cypher, they find life outside the Matrix so meaningless and empty that they have to be given an illusion to make their lives worth living.
The other main characters though, even though they don't have the comforts of the Matrix, are more interested in the real world and how to make it a better place, instead of putting their hopes on a utopian fantasy world...
The key question which defines the difference between materialistn {a more positive and unladen term for "atheist"} and theist beliefs is: "Are you interested more in truth, or comfort?" Whichever one an individual choses is up to them, and doesn't necessarily make them a bad person, people have different goals in life. Theists search for beliefs which offer hope and comfort in a heavenly father-figure, materialists search for beliefs which conform to the material world which they experience.
No one has anwered my question: (first define hope-less-ness)... the claim again was: If you are an atheist... what is your hope? If there is one, then I was mistaken in implying that there was not.
Theists often make a fundamental error in their thinking. {sorry my emotions got in the way there. Lets start that again}... Theists often view the world in a different way. Because its good, it must be true. Because it offers "hope" it must be true... so, because the paradise will eliminate wickedness off the earth forever, it MUST be true... and because we will go to heaven and drink milk and honey forever, it MUST be true... and because materialism has no HOPES for the afterlife, it must be false.
However, you cannot base the veracity of a belief system merely on what hopes it offers you.
"Hope-less-ness" means the state of having a lack of hope. Hope is "the general feeling that some desire will be fulfilled". First of all then, hope is a *feeling* and is not always necessarily based in reality. Feelings alone do not necessarily make wishes/hopes come true {although i do esteem the value of positive-thinking}.
The question is, how high do we value reality. Or is a sence of unreality actually what human existance is all about. What is real?
On the other hand, although not always based in reality, hope is not necessarily a bad thing. Materialists are able to have hope in things that occur in THIS LIFE {or even *after* they are dead: eg. hope that their children will live in a better world}, therefore their beliefs are not "hope-less". They may not share the same mass-hopes and mass-dreams as theists do, but as individuals, their "atheist" beliefs do not make them hopeless. In addition, they can have the "hope", that when they die, they will not be tormented nor rewarded eternally, but will simply enter into a peaceful state of non-existance, deeper than sleep {"nirvana" / "moksha" but without having to work for it}.
