Thankful and No One to Thank

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I mentioned in an earlier blog that I would write another explaining to who or what I am thankful.

The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti

There's an article over on About.com's Atheism site about Thanksgiving and atheists, arguing against the belief that atheists have no one to thank during the holiday. While the article brings up some valid points, siting as targets for our gratitude such things as people, scientists, modern medicine and technology, etc., as usual, the atheist persona online is a very stoic one. Matter-of-fact.

For me and, without a doubt many others, it's simply not the whole picture.

Yes, I thank the farmers who made the meal possible, the turkey who gave its life (unwillingly and unwittingly)... and not just at Thanksgiving. The people and animals who provide us sustenance are always at the top of my Thank You List, every day of the year.

But what about a particularly beautiful sunrise, or even an ugly one? (Is there such a thing?) A wispy cloud and a light breeze that takes me back 20 years to an almost-forgotten memory? A show put on by a group of birds dancing and twirling in the air over a rush hour-clogged street? A day which, for reasons unknown, is a particularly good one, where everything just seems to click?

For some things, there really is no one to thank, and yet I am still thankful. To whom or what you might ask.

To which I might respond, "Does it matter?"

So, during this month of Thanksgiving, I am thankful to the tangible, the people, animals, scientists, etc., for their particular contributions to life on Earth. I am also thankful to the less tangible and often nameless but no less important forces that govern life.. Mother Nature. Fate. Luck. Happenstance. The Universe. Everything. Nothing in Particular.*

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*I assign no supernatural power to these things. Some are not even "real" (fate, for example), and yet there is a definite lack in our vocabulary to describe their equal and so I use the words anyway. Some atheists would cringe at my nod to "Mother Nature." I do not believe that nature is female, nor that there is a Mother Goddess, etc. However the symbolism of the female figure giving and nurturing life is a wonderful one that can be viewed in the same way Einstein viewed the harmony of the universe.

Darwin's "Origin of Species," with a new 50 page introduction by Ray Comfort

Ray Comfort. You know.. The Way of the Master and The Atheist's Nightmare Banana Man...

He's a Nightmare alright. I read on Pharyngula tonight, in a blog entitled Foil the Depraved Designs of a Dastardly Duo that Mr. Comfort has altered The Origin of Species by adding a 50-page introduction, full of half-truths and pseudo-science.

Here's a video of his little helper, Kirk Cameron, explaining their brilliant plan to once and for all spread the ugly "truth" about evolution. They will deploy their stink bombs on November 19th, 2009, to 50 college campuses.



Over on Dawkins.net, they suggest a way to fight against the spread of misinformation. Dawkins.net suggests:

We can amass as many of these books as possible, remove the 50 page intro, and then donate perfectly good copies of 'Origin of Species' to schools, libraries, and Goodwill. We can actually make this into something positive.

If you engage in this activity, just do the Earth a favor and recycle the torn out pages. :)

Ok... in all honesty, though, I don't truly recommend the destruction of books (although a few weeded out copies here and there won't hurt too much?). Comfort and Cameron have a right to be heard no matter how ridiculous the message they are trying to spread.

Knowing that this stuff is out there is part of the battle. The rest is up to you.

Refreshing and Inspiring

It's not often that I'm inspired by the words of a preacher. But this man's words literally gave me chills. John Shelby Spong gave me hope that even an Episcopalian minister, whose job it is to preach a Christian doctrine, can see past the smoke and mirrors to a possible enlightened truth.

I have often been told that I should be afraid. That through my failure to accept Christ, I will suffer forever. That God, though He loves me, is bound to his promises and will have no choice but to cast me to Satan, who will torture me for an eternity for the horrible crime of skepticism.

Try as I might, though, I just can't reach a level of fright large enough to make me believe in something in which I do not. I can't even muster up mild trepidation.

I see hell much as this minister does; that even if a god does exist, hell, heaven, and all the fancy trappings of religion, are man made, used to manipulate our natural tendency to seek pleasure and avoid pain.

To quote John Shelby Spong:

"God is not a Christian...All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God."

"The function of the Christ is not to rescue the sinners, but to empower you and to call you to be more deeply and fully human than you've ever realized there was the potential within you to be."

Beautiful.

New to This Here Blogger.com

Doesn't everyone do these things? These blogs that don't really say much other than, "Hi. I'm new here. Just trying it all out!"

Well.. hi. I'm new here. Just trying it all out!

I come from the Land of Myspace, which is intended to be a teenage social tool rather than a mid-thirty something's blog space. I love myspace , don't misunderstand me. It's a wonderful way for incurable lazies like myself to keep in touch with multiple people all at once. Back when news had to travel by way of paper and stamps, I lost contact with so many people. Not so with myspace. Now, with the simple push of a bulletin button, ten different people from around the world (social butterfly I am not) know instantly what fabulously exciting things I've been up to, like what color underwear I have on, what I ate for breakfast, or the identity of my current crush.

I love it.

But this place... ahhh! A place just for blogging! Where has it been all my life?

As you can see from the picture of me (/points to the top of the page), I am seemingly confused. Aren't most of us? (Except for those who voted for Bush the second time around, who are actually and truly confused. Kidding kidding! Sort of... ) Most of us do not fit into neat little boxes of liberal, conservative, hippie, redneck, pro-this, pro-that, etc. Most of us are a mix of various viewpoints.

The media, and those who control the media, do not wish us to know this. At least, that is the impression that I get. They appear to do everything in their power to prevent us from knowing this: there is a mix of viewpoints which resides within most people, giving the majority of us a common ground from which we can prosper together, even across political, age, gender, and religious divides.

Sure the country is "divided". How could it not be when we are inundated with red states and blue states. Democrat and Republican. Believer and non-believer. But, that is just on the surface. If we could look deeper, we could see we are not so shallow as that.

There are nuts and fanatics, of course. People who attack doctors who perform abortions and women who use abortions like the latest birth control method. Those who use religion as a sign of superiority and a method for social control, and those who "don't believe in god" because they are in rebellion against their parents, society, conformity, or who use atheism as a sign of superiority. There are those who think the solution to the crisis in the middle east is to blow the entire region off the face of the earth, and those who think that soldiers are rapers, pillagers and baby-killers. There are the patrionuts who chant that the US of A is the end-all and be-all of civilization, and the down-with-the-USAtards who can't see any good in this country no matter how hard they try (they don't try very hard).

But most of us, I know, are much more moderate than that. We may disagree on topics of great importance (as well as those of trifling silliness), but compromise is within our grasp.. if we would only try. I really hope we do, and soon. I fear the consequences for us, and the world, should we fail to do so.


(It seems I had more to say than just hi. When I say I have just a little to say, don't believe me; it's almost never the truth.)

:)