No, despair IS a sin. De -spero, lack of hope.
Hope is not a feeling. It is one of the three theological virtues implanted in us by the Holy Spirit.
You can hope even when you are feeling lousy. You can hope when you are as pessimistic as heck. Optimism is not the same as hope. Pessimism is not the same as de-spair. Pessimism and optimism are rational judgments based on evidence. In addition to rational judgments we have feelings, good and bad, related to pessimism optimism.
But hope is not feeling nor pure rational judgment. It’s based on faith. And hope can flourish even where both feelings and reason signal the worst possible negatives.
In this case, as others have pointed out, we have little reason to think pessimistically.—they are trying to discourage us with no real evidence on their side.
It’s easier to have hope when there’s reason for optimism. But even if all the evidence pointed to the worst imaginable outcome, we can still hope—in faith.
Gosh, I really do disagree with you. I’ve felt despair in my life. I’m Bipolar. Despair is a feeling that obliterates you. It destroys. When faced with this feeling, this horrible horrible situation, it’s what I choose to do that is the sin. God does not make a feeling a sin; it’s how the sinner reacts to the feeling that is the sin. Guess we’ll have to agree to disagree. God Bless.