Gratitude

From Thank God by I Am:

In the last few days, I’ve been hearing this seemingly innocuous phrase bandied about quite a bit, and it’s pissed me off enough to get me to come out of hiding and blog after over six months. It’s not the thanking of god itself that irritates me. If you believe in a god, you should probably thank him, her or it frequently. First of all, this is a being to which you owe your very existence. Second of all, whether the prescribed method of expression is saying grace, dancing in a circle, sacrificing a chicken or mutilating your child’s genitals, most gods seem to really, really like being thanked. A lot. In fact, it seems that once the act of creation has been achieved, most gods take up getting humans to express gratitude as their primary occupation. This raises questions about any given god’s need for validation or level of emotional maturity, but who am I to doubt the divine will?

For the purpose of this post only, let’s stipulate that a god or gods exist and that they are either omnipotent or at least unimaginably powerful. Frankly, any being that doesn’t fit this criterion probably shouldn’t be called a god, so I think that’s safe. When might be an appropriate time to thank this god? Well, for example, when one is viewing the wonders of nature seems like a good time. In practice, though, when was the last time you heard someone say “Thank god, it’s a rainbow?” Contemplating the simple fact of or aspects of one’s own life or existence seems like it should stir this sort of emotion, but one doesn’t often hear “Thank god, my kidneys work beautifully.” In fact, at least nine times out of ten, these two words only issue forth from the lips of someone who has recently experienced tragedy or near tragedy. Tune into any of the cable news networks the day after a natural disaster (so just about any day), and you’ll hear a whole lot of people thanking god. For example, you might hear something like “The wildfire destroyed my house, and my car exploded, but thank god I’m alive.” Hospitals are also a popular place for this kind of thing, such as “My baby died of Ebola this morning, but thank god I have another child.”

Read the rest here.