Good for Goodness sake

Once a year families gather around a table of great holiday food. It’s a time of gratitude and charity. I’ve imagined the fairly common situation where a parent prompts a child to say please or thank you. This can be an effective way to teach children manners and gratitude, but most of the time these obligatory expressions of kindness are only prompted by obedience and lack any authentic sincerity. We can all agree that it would be far better for a child to give genuine thanks unprompted by a supervising parent. Some people might think it’s better to be kind by command than to not show appreciation at all. Maybe in some situations, but most times I prefer no response over a fake thank you.

In a similar way to parental teachings, many religions claim the necessity of gratitude by divine command. “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” Much like an observant parent, an omniscient God knows when your only being grateful out of obligation. There are certainly a number of members who are genuine, but there’s definitely a number of religious people who put on a fake smile of kindness to appease their deity. If you don’t really mean it, don’t say it. You can still be tolerant and respectful of others you don’t like, but excessive acting can be obvious and interpreted as disingenuous.

I once saw a post about how unfortunate it is that Atheists have no one to express gratitude towards. This thought is very misunderstood. When an Atheist survives a risky operation, they can thank the doctors who study and practice modern medicine - not an invisible person. As a plane successfully lands despite difficult cross winds, Atheist can be grateful to the skillful pilot and intelligent aerospace engineers who designed the plane - not one particular deity. If a struggling farm receives some much needed rain, it’s thanks to natural weather patterns - not a magical sky wizard. Religious people are free to express appreciation to the God they believe, but I would hope they also remember to give thanks to those who actually deserve it.

When I take time to reflect on all the people who have influenced my life for good and expressed genuine kindness I feel overwhelmed with appreciation. I can tell my Mom anything with confidence that she’ll be entirely interested and concerned. My Dad has instilled in me the value and importance of education and hard work. My best friend, Mike, is a true companion who has supported me during my most difficult times. Thank you. To try and be succinct and not accidentally exclude someone I’ll stop with the specifics, but there are many I’m thankful for. To everyone who was supportive and encouraging during my difficult transition from religion, thank you. To anyone who has shown me kindness and considered me to be a friend I hope that I have been genuinely kind in return. And to anyone who has read all 40 of my articles, damn! Don’t you have anything better to do? But, really, thank you so much for the support. Please, remember to express gratitude to those who actually deserve the credit.