Adventure is worthwhile - Aesop

Heathens Are Thankful, Too

by West Virginia Rebel

In giving thanks, an atheist asks how much we should really thank God for:

There are elements of my good fortune that are not the product of human effort—such as the facts that I a citizen of the United States and not, say, the Congo; that I was born with a sound body; and that the laws of nature work as they do. Do I need a God to account for those windfalls? In the first two cases, definitely not. I accept without discomfort the massive role of randomness in the distribution of benefits and handicaps; the alternative—that they represent deliberate judgment–is too horrible to contemplate. Were I to thank God for my extreme luck in being born into a society where people do not routinely massacre each other, I would have to explain why I deserve this happy outcome, whereas those millions of individuals who are not so fortunate in their birthplace do not. Likewise, if God is responsible for my healthy physical constitution, I would have to explain why he allows thousands of innocent children to be born with painful and sometimes fatal birth defects while sparing me.

Coming up with such explanations, in my view, requires either narcissism or the torture of reason. Most believers seem oblivious to the solipsism entailed by their thanking God when their cancer goes into remission, say. But the problem remains: Why did God save you and let the patient in the bed next to you die? The results are no more satisfactory when a conscious effort is made to supply rationales for such disparate outcomes. Typical candidates include: It is actually a gift from God to be born with half a brain, you just lack the capacity to understand his mysterious ways; or, how dare you presume to judge him, you cringing worm?

So, a question for you religious types out there: Why do you give thanks to a God who only seems to save or give good health and fortune to some and not others?

Comments

Posted by on 11/27/08 at 05:14 AM from

Why did God save you and let the patient in the bed next to you die?

This was exactly the realisation that undermined the middle ages and pushed Europe unwittingly toward the Renaissance:

“No amount of prayer seems to be saving anyone at all from the black death, so why bother?”

Not that I’m arguing for a new black death, mind you.

“Bring out yur dead!”

Posted by InsipiD on 11/27/08 at 05:14 AM from

So, a question for you religious types out there: Why do you give thanks to a God who only seems to save or give good health and fortune to some and not others?

Because I trust that He’s smarter than I am and has a reason for everything that happens.  That means it could be bad.

Posted by HARLEY on 11/27/08 at 06:25 AM from

God Does, play dice.

Lets see who gets that.

Posted by on 11/27/08 at 07:22 AM from

Lets see who gets that.

In my best Windows-Text-To-Speech robotic voice: “I do”.

Posted by on 11/27/08 at 09:39 AM from

I give thanks to God because he created me and the rest of this world.  Even with those who deal with pain and strife, I trust God is working a plan for His purposes, that even through that pain and strife, God gives people the opportunity to love Him and others.  I thank him for the many gifts, tangible and intangible, that he has given me, knowing that I am here for a purpose and ought to use those gifts in service to God and others. 

If you know love, you know a bit of God.  You also know how great a feeling loving and being loved is.  How much greater is God’s love for us--it’s a perfect love given unconditionally.  Most of all, I’m thankful for the love He’s given me--love that overflows into others.  There is no greater gift than love.

Posted by on 11/27/08 at 12:38 PM from

Why do you give thanks to a God who only seems to save or give good health and fortune to some and not others?

And the one that bugs me...How can God be both all-powerful and all-good?

Posted by InsipiD on 11/27/08 at 04:19 PM from

And the one that bugs me...How can God be both all-powerful and all-good?

If He’s also all-permissive.

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