“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.” Full editorial quoted above - Newnan Times-Herald
As hateful (or ignorant?) as the editorial writer is, many of the comments posted below the Times-Herald piece, written by thoughtful and well spoken atheists commenting on the article, are truly beautiful. I am THANKFUL this Thanksgiving to those people who wrote such calm, dignified responses to the author.
(I discovered the article as originally linked by our outspoken atheist friend PZ at Pharyngula. Click HERE for PZ’s usual “not-shy-at-all-don’t-care-what-anyone-thinks” comments on the editorial. So obnoxious - but I adore him just the same. He’s always good for a chuckle and right on point.)
I’m confused! Just because I’m an atheist, I can’t gather with my family and friends? Isn’t that discrimination? Why do I want to thank god? I don’t believe in him, I’d rather thank the noodly appendage of the flying spaghetti monster for all the sense that makes. Why can’t I just thank my family and friends for being such wonderful rationale people——and then get down to the business of eating. Besides, we’ve called it our Autumnal harvest meal for ages, I mean Thanksgiving is Soooo 20th century!
That’s right. Atheists and agnostics are NOT capable of gathering around a dinner table and being THANKFUL. We should know better than to try! Our heads will implode if we try to display any sort of emotion or sense of family and community.
I got a laugh from PZ’s comment:
“I have many things to be thankful for. One is that I’m not the brain-damaged idiot who wrote this appalling editorial…”
What an odd editorial. It seems to be a series of unrelated thoughts and platitudes attached as if by a string to the first, weirdly baffling, paragraph.
“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.”
As the title suggested, the columnist threw out a few religious thoughts. He led with a bigoted, ignorant paragraph against atheists. There is nothing remotely humorous there.
This atheist has to work Friday, but after that I’m going to a friend’s place just south of Austin to camp out with 100 or so of our best friends, people we have known for about 1/4 century and have grown so close over the years we consider ourselves an extended family. Most of us are closer to this group than to our own families. We help each other through weddings and funerals, through moves and job losses, through divorces and courtships. Some of us are Christians, most at least agnostics, none practices any religion. Our ethnic background is a diverse as you could imagine, and all are welcome. Some of use are carpenters, some are lawyers, some are nurses, many are musicians, and we even have a couple of major bank CEOs in our group. By the way, neither of these banks is on the Fed’s list of 179 banks in trouble.
I plan to have a great time this weekend. Maybe I’ll invite Mr. Griffith to camp out with us next year. Good music and a bit of tequila would do him some good.
This is the perfect thread for me to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. Amid the problems in the world there is still plenty to be thankful for, including the great folks we have on this forum, Mods and members alike.
Yes, funny how that works out! As I start my 8 hour day of cooking , working towards a warm and fuzzy meal with my loved ones, I just want to take the time to wish everyone a WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING DAY!
“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.” Full editorial quoted above - Newnan Times-Herald
As hateful (or ignorant?) as the editorial writer is, many of the comments posted below the Times-Herald piece, written by thoughtful and well spoken atheists commenting on the article, are truly beautiful. I am THANKFUL this Thanksgiving to those people who wrote such calm, dignified responses to the author.
(I discovered the article as originally linked by our outspoken atheist friend PZ at Pharyngula. Click HERE for PZ’s usual “not-shy-at-all-don’t-care-what-anyone-thinks” comments on the editorial. So obnoxious - but I adore him just the same. He’s always good for a chuckle and right on point.)
Well since it’s a Well Known True Fact(tm) that we godless atheists are incapable of being moral and ethical humans beings without belief in god, then of course we can’t give thanks without belief
in god! It’s self-evident!
!
