Poor me. The holidays at this time of year are meaningless to me, since I acknowledge no god. How awful is my existence during the 30-odd days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Woe is me! Depression and sadness and grief!Thanksgiving must be a terrible time for atheists. They have no God to thank.
They do not have the privilege of gathering with family and friends to express gratitude by saying: "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." An atheist on his deathbed faces serious uncertainties. Gazing upward, he pleads: "Oh God, if there is a God, please save my soul -- if I have one."
Personally, I have never lacked for things to be thankful for; indeed, one of the things I am most thankful for is my lack of god belief. I am also thankful for my family, my friends, and that I can wake up each day with the ability to appreciate the wonders of our universe. I can marvel at the snowflake-delicate form of a dandelion seed. I can look in awe at a Hubble photograph of a distant galaxy, its hundreds of billions of stars all clustered together like a swarm of brilliant bees. And all of it, from seed to galaxy, all of reality, all of Life, the Universe, and Everything, all forged by elements obeying the laws not of Zeus or Odin or Yahweh, but of nature itself.
What does an atheist have to be thankful for? Why, everything that someone who is religious is thankful for, with one exception. I feel no need to thank God or gods for anything. But don't think for one minute that I don't feel grateful for those people and things that make my life meaningful.
Lastly, I'd be thankful if Mr. Griffith, and others like him, would keep their myopic blather to themselves.
1 comments:
I really couldn't believe that a person could actually write that. It's amazing how individuals thinks that just because you don't believe the way they do that you must somehow be inferior. I almost wondered if he was trying to make a joke out of it but it was pretty evident that he believed what he was writing.
Post a Comment