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Thankful Without God?

Aside for being thankful to or for other human beings, the concept of being thankful is very often associated with giving thanks to god for some perceived blessing. The holiday of Thanksgiving, praise services in churches, even people in everyday conversation - all expressing thanks to a god of their choosing.

Can someone without belief in any god still be generally thankful? Or is it that all who lack any belief in a god are thankless cranks, practicing a despondent form of nihilism and having a sour, bitter attitude toward life?

From my own experience, lack of belief in any god does not prohibit me from experiencing and expressing a general sense or attitude of thankfulness for being alive and experiencing life. I cannot say I exhibit this attitude all the time (which to me would be an indication of mental instability!) but it arises often and contributes to my overall perspective as I face the ups and downs people encounter simply by being alive. Moreover, I do not have any more or less feelings of thankfulness now than I did when I expressed belief in god as a practicing theist who was committed to a church and to actively passing on my beliefs.

To whom or what am I thankful? Nobody and nothing in particular. It is simply a sense of gratitude - a state of being pleased instead of dissatisfied. This fits well with the dictionary definition of being thankful which includes: "conscious of benefit received; well pleased" (from Merriam-Webster online).

The difference I find now is that instead of attributing all good things to a divine entity, I now attribute good things to, well, life! Also, I do not have to seek out or trust "god's purposes" to cope when something bad happens. Simply put, I do not have the inclination that I am divinely favored or blessed above other people when something good happens, nor the inclination that I am being divinely tested or judged when something bad happens.

So, lack of a belief in a god has not really changed my ability to have a sense of being thankful. It has changed the direction of my thankfulness.

By Slavsrule

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