As the nation stops to celebrate the now ancient religious holiday of thankfulness to the provider of all things, it occurs to me to wonder about how Atheist thankfulness functions, how it works when the individual Atheist is the provider of all knowledge, morality and wisdom.
Does the Atheist express gratitude for his family? Probably. But expressing gratitude FOR is not gratitude because gratitude requires an object which is the source of the benefit for which gratitude exists. The source of the Atheist's family is evolution, of course. So there is a logical necessity, assuming that there is actually Atheist gratitude, that the Atheist is grateful for evolution, which is considered to be natural law (probably just the Modern Synthesis - mutation and selection).
But if the Atheist is grateful to natural law, and natural law is just, well, natural, then the Atheist might be grateful that natural law has a source. But that is very likely one step too far, and the Atheist must halt at the point of mutation/selection, in other words, the luck of random mutations and the luck of selection being available at the proper time and place. So the Atheist must reduce the object of gratitude to randomness, which worked in his favor.
Being grateful to randomness seems to be a bit cold. But the upshot is "luck", so being grateful to his luck seems to be at or near the final object of his gratitude. But the circle needs the final step for its completion. While randomness and luck produced the Atheist and his family, what is really, really lucky is that it made them superior to all others. So the complete chain of gratitude circles around to this: gratitude that the Atheist is not like the others, and is totally superior to them in intellect and morality, as well as knowledge of truth, wisdom, and devotion to the part of "science" which supports this circular argument.
The final analysis comes down to self-worship as it is rationalized, and perhaps - perhaps - the Atheist is grateful to himself for his personal realization of his eliteness and superiority.
3 comments:
But if the Atheist is grateful to natural law, and natural law is just, well, natural, then the Atheist might be grateful that natural law has a source.
This is interesting.The dictionary defines grateful as feeling or showing an appreciation for something done or received.
So this eliminates any awe and appreciation Atheists may have for nature because the very concept of gratitude implies a benefactor who deliberately bestowed some kind of gift or favor.
Atheists who are grateful towards nature must ask themselves who or what gave bestowed this gift to us?
The only source Atheists are allowed to acknowledge for the cause of nature and physical reality at large is Nothingness.So Atheists are basically grateful for nothing.
"So Atheists are basically grateful for nothing."
THAT is profound: a veritable Atheo-Leftist koan! Congratulations on such keen insight!
Of course, the usual response is "Where is the evidence for that?", leaving unspecified but implied that PHYSICAL evidence of nothing would be required in order to "prove" the assertion. Such ingratitude should not be rewarded with a non-physical answer.
BOOT TO THE HEAD!
I face this issue every Thanksgiving.
When I was a child, Christmas and Easter dinners were hosted at my grandparents' house. Thanksgiving was hosted at ours, with all the extended family present. Dinners were always preceded by prayer.
After my grandparents passed, and my mother sold her house, Thanksgiving dinner was transferred to a cousin's house. Her husband is an atheist, as are, presumably, their children. Thus, in place of a prayer of to God, the new tradition is to simply go around the table expressing what you're "thankful" for, full stop.
At my turn, I've always been clear to give thanks "to God" and then, when the meal begins, said a silent prayer punctuated with a sign of the cross.
Disappointingly, no one has ever commented to me, apart from my mother who, though a theist herself, once wondered if I weren't being rude. I've been waiting twenty years to point out that "thank" is a transitive verb, and that gratitude requires an object.
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