Pessimism in the west was made into a system by Arthur Schopenhauer. It has never been a popular philosophy but provides rich insights into the nature of human desire and the possibility of happiness in a materialistic cosmos. Antinatalism, the idea that birth has a negative rather than positive value, has been a component of pessimism since the beginning. In the last ten years antinatalism has been a developed into a system of its own. This new antinatalism magnifies the antinatalist observations of earlier forms of pessimism into a moral rallying cry. Today’s antinatalists go so far as to recommend a voluntary extinction of the species through an avoidance of reproduction. This paper explains the pessimistic background of modern day antinatalism while at the same time showing the ways in which modern antinatalism makes use of utopian and messianic hope in its moral response pessimistic philosophy. This paper further claims that pessimistic philosophy is only consistent with itself to the extent that it remains descriptive. The antinatalist solution to the problems of existence engages in a messianic optimism that is not allowed to the secular pessimistic mind.