Hope

[hedgehog]

To the despairing philosopher, and to anyone else who hasn't gotten in anywhere this year: there is hope! Graduate school is not the be-all, end-all. It's one possible way to spend five or more years of one's life ... it is not the meaning of life. You may very well choose to apply again next year. If so, go for it! But in the mean time, please don't despair. Call your friends, let yourself grieve, but also give yourself permission to hope that something even better than you had ever imagined could be on the horizon. God has given us a promise:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)

I trust that there is something awesome waiting for you in the year ahead, grad school or not. Do not lose hope, dear philosopher. And please, talk to someone when the dark thoughts start crowding in. You don't have to face this alone.

(And for the record, I have not yet heard from any of my schools. As much as I want to get into a program, I trust that God will put me exactly where I'm supposed to be.)

Wishing you peace,

Hedgehog

[Apis]

Apis here. That post was probably a joke.

If it wasn't, the person likely isn't really suicidal over grad school apps. That kind of thing doesn't happen unless there's existing, underlying problems: depression, bipolar, borderline... stuff like that. Chances are, even if they got into a great program, they'd still be having problems.

I'll probably get flamed for saying this, but if this person were serious, I'm glad they didn't get into graduate school. If they're that depressed, grad school would likely only make things worse for them. To me, this underscores something I've believed for a long time. Guys, take care of yourselves BEFORE you apply.

[mathamathick]

To the despairing philosopher, and to anyone else who hasn't gotten in anywhere this year: there is hope! Graduate school is not the be-all, end-all. It's one possible way to spend five or more years of one's life ... it is not the meaning of life. You may very well choose to apply again next year. If so, go for it! But in the mean time, please don't despair. Call your friends, let yourself grieve, but also give yourself permission to hope that something even better than you had ever imagined could be on the horizon. God has given us a promise:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11)

I trust that there is something awesome waiting for you in the year ahead, grad school or not. Do not lose hope, dear philosopher. And please, talk to someone when the dark thoughts start crowding in. You don't have to face this alone.

(And for the record, I have not yet heard from any of my schools. As much as I want to get into a program, I trust that God will put me exactly where I'm supposed to be.)

Wishing you peace,

Hedgehog

Kudos for the intent, but I don't think god is a very convincing argument for a philosophy student.

Additionally, I think being an atheist in this situation helps. For an applicant like me who is in the third year of application without acceptance, its nice to know someone is not screwing you over again and again.

(And please don't say you are getting screwed because you are an atheist. God fearing/loving people have had to face much worse situations too.)

[AbaNader]

easy there...

[Tiglath-Pileser III]

Kudos for the intent, but I don't think god is a very convincing argument for a philosophy student.

Additionally, I think being an atheist in this situation helps. For an applicant like me who is in the third year of application without acceptance, its nice to know someone is not screwing you over again and again.

(And please don't say you are getting screwed because you are an atheist. God fearing/loving people have had to face much worse situations too.)

I don't know. I was a philosophy student and I thought it was very helpful. Furthermore, you seem to infer that being an atheist is at an advantage in this situation. I would dispute that one's religious persuasion necessarily provides advantage or disadvantage. The theist might also have an advantage in that he can claim that God may be preventing an even worse situation from occurring. People are not always better off when they get what they want, just look at the long-term prognosis for most lottery winners. Statistically, after five years, the overwhelming majority of people who win the lottery end up in greater debt and with less friends than before he/she took their winnings, yet people always pine "if I only could win the lottery." Just because one doesn't get an acceptance does not necessarily mean that God hates you or is screwing you over, although it may feel that way in the moment.

Immediately, after my undergraduate degree, I was prevented from going onto a graduate degree for a variety of reasons. I had to be in the work world ten years before I had another shot at a graduate degree. In my case, I could have taken this as a "no" and I did at the time. But in reality it was a "not yet."

[mathamathick]

Religion will certainly serve its purpose if it helps. And I understand people have an alternate opinion about it. But, in my opinion, religion may not be a very convincing argument against ending one's life, especially for a philosophy student.

And mostly, I was referring to my personal experience dealing with this situation rather than giving a general assessment of the situation. How would I know what believing in god can do for your psyche?

I need to make it clear that I was not attacking religion, but only the argument built around it without knowing if the person involved even believes in god.

[monkeefugg]

The concept of "God" is philosophically untenable

[Tiglath-Pileser III]

The concept of "God" is philosophically untenable

This statement is suspect given the fact it is a generalization (at best) and a faith statement (at worst). It is a de jure attack posing as a de facto statement and probably not appropriate for a forum where despairing people are desperately seeking hope.

Don't you ever tire from making enemies?

[Apis]

This statement is suspect given the fact it is a generalization (at best) and a faith statement (at worst). It is a de jure attack posing as a de facto statement and probably not appropriate for a forum where despairing people are desperately seeking hope.

Meh. I agree that this isn't the place for a theological debate; however, I want to add that I find the absence of God incredibly liberating. Indeed, it inspires great hope in me.

This process would be so much easier if everyone just gave up and became nihilists.

[hedgehog]

Hi everyone:

Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I know that we all approach the question of God from our own perspectives, so I wanted to share mine in case it could be helpful. I was spurred to write by our philosopher colleague, and I do pray that she (he?) is emerging from that state of despair. (And Apis, the original posting on the results board seemed a bit specific for a joke. Whether grad school rejections are only the last straw in a long line of difficulties, it seems that our colleague is in a very dark place. I would reiterate my encouragement for her or him to talk to someone right away. Replies on the results board offered resources for suicide prevention, and I think that would be a good place to start.)

Mathamathick, I respect your alternate take on the situation but I am a little surprised that you'd assume religion and philosophy are mutually incompatible. Some of the most thoughtful people I've known have been people of faith who are also philosophy graduate students. I understand that may not be the case among the grad students you've known, but philosophers are hardly a monolithic bunch.

Speaking from my own experience, life has gone so much better when I've made the deliberate decision to ask God to put me in the right place at the right time. Similar to Hermes' lottery example, when I've pushed my way through to get something I really wanted, it often turned out to be a disaster. For those who have had great success on your own, I can understand why this seems like a superfluous step. But I know that I lack the wisdom and perspective to manage my own destiny. (As if such a thing were truly possible with hundreds of applicants for every slot!)

As I see it, the hope in all of this comes from the fact that God really does love us and wants good things for us. In fact, God finds us positively delightful. Personally, that blows my mind. As we are all struggling to convince ad comms that we are fabulous, I think it's pretty encouraging that the One who knows us better than anyone has already chosen to love us. Our response, of course, is up to us. I know how amazingly God has brought me through some very dark times (far more serious than not getting into grad school!) and based on that experience, I know that God is available to anyone who seeks Him.

So that, dear friends, is a short version of my understanding of hope. We are more than our GRE scores. We are more than the last one off the waitlist. We each have a unique purpose, which I believe we can best tap into by asking God to direct our steps. I find a lot of hope in that.

(My stats since my last post: 1 rejection, the rest silent.)

Peace,

Hedgehog

[mathamathick]

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this post are the authors personal views under influence and do not reflect his views when sober.

Not exactly the right place for this sort of discussion, I will nevertheless continue with it since it has been in a very positive manner up till now.

My first post on this topic was regarding the fallacy of an argument built around god, when not everyone believes in the notion. I have found a larger proportion of atheists amongst philosophers compared to the normal population and was just pointing it out that the person you were trying to convince might reject your argument based on the premise.

I am not an atheist because I didn't get in graduate school, or thought that god was preventing a wish of mine. I became an atheist (in spite of a very religious upbringing) because of my experiences and the following rationalization. It was the product of what happened around me combined with my thought process and then choosing (supposedly) the right path (instead of being born into it).

I believe you have been particularly fortunate ( and hopefully it keeps that way) in coming back from dark times and have not seen the bitter and nauseating events that many other fellow humans have been a witness to. Many perished/suffered with little hope of reclamation. That cheerfulness in your proclamation that "God is available to anyone who seeks Him" might have been a little subdued had you seen the other side of the argument. Exactly how so much suffering, and so much destruction fits in his/her grand plan is beyond me.

I still think however that religion is not necessarily a bad thing. It is scary living in such an enormous world, where our mind is incapable of calculating and grasping every possibility we are facing. It helps to know that somebody is with you, even if you are fooling yourself. Is it even worthwhile to know the truth if a lie leads to a better life? Religion can result in a better society, but if you are educated and intelligent enough (which I presume everyone on grad cafe is ), do you really need to have ethics/morality/humanity crammed into your head with useless stories and fictitious characters?

Think about this too: Had you been born in a different family, with different religion (maybe even atheists), would you be still defending your present beliefs?

And why is god ( according to you ) directing me to do this? I should be destroyed before this gets posted. Or is it in his/her grand plan of spreading atheism?

I am going to get maligned for this. Thank "God" my identity is hidden. I think.

Special Thanks: I would not have written this without the gracious support of Mr. Tanqueray.

[monkeefugg]

This statement is suspect given the fact it is a generalization (at best) and a faith statement (at worst). It is a de jure attack posing as a de facto statement and probably not appropriate for a forum where despairing people are desperately seeking hope.

Don't you ever tire from making enemies?

It's true. Another philosopher will tell you

Read "The Non-Existence of God" published by Routeledge

[Tiglath-Pileser III]

It's true. Another philosopher will tell you

Read "The Non-Existence of God" published by Routeledge

Ah, one opinion by no means covers the entire field. Selective citation is never acceptable as a blanket statement covering the opinion of an entire field. So, the truth value of your statement is weak at best and probably false. There are plenty of philosophers who do believe in God, such as, John Feinberg, William Lane Craig, and Alvin Plantinga. I did my undergraduate degree in philosophy focusing on the philosophy of religion at a secular university, and I will say that roughly half the philosophers there believed in God. Ironically, at my undergrad institution, more philosophers believed in God by a large margin than those whose academic focus was religious studies.