So, just what are we talking about?

[LemmingofGlory]

whereagles Even if one doesn't believe in a deity, one always hope that it exists.

Quark I'm not sure I can respond to this. It's so preposterous from my perspective that I just don't know what to say. I don't hope that a deity exists; I personally wouldn't care either way (other than the fact that I'd rather be right than wrong). The best reaction I can give to this is that since whereagles is implying what I hope, the burden of proof is completely on him and not me.

I suspect it bothered you for the same reason it bothered me: it's a logical fallacy.

From A Handbook of Logical Fallacies:
* FANTASY PROJECTION
* CONTEXT IMPOSITION
   An attempt to impose his own intellectual or moral context on another
person by someone who has closed his mind to reality and manufactured a
fantasy, then expects (or if he is a tyrant, demands) others to share it and
help him sustain it. He ignores the objective realities of the situation,
concentrating instead on subjective perceptions that are false. (See the
definition of Social Metaphysics in the DICT file.)
   "If you were terminally ill, you too would advocate life preservation."
   "There are no atheists in foxholes." 
   I have not been to war and do not presume to judge the mental lifeboats
sought by terrified men in the face of incomprehensible horrors. Subject to
sufficient stress, the human mind can be tortured into many horrible shapes.
On the other hand, while cringing in the foxhole the sincere atheist should
realize fully that he does not believe in God: What sort of bloody-minded
deity would let the creatures he created perpetrate a situation like his?
   Imposition of the Slave Mentality: "Aren't you thankful that they allow
this?" [I am expected to limit myself to the context of "their" allowables.]
The proper answer is, "No, I am resentful that they forbid other freedoms I
should possess."
   They behave as though by naming your opinion in advance they will make
you unable to alter it.
   They have a six-inch knife and have stuck it four inches into me. Should
I be thankful they have not shoved it in the final two inches? Or resentful
that they have shoved it in four inches? [I am expected to accept their
behavioral context and to judge my situation from within that context.]
   "Let 'em eat cake!"

-Lem