The problem with being an infidel.

each day is a blessing was posted in another thread by UzumakiAi
and he added in parentheses "in a secular sense". I agree with him.
Each day is a blessing but we have no-one to thank.

Recently we (my family) have taken to thanking the FSM, tooth fairy or
other random "deity" at meal times to remind ourselves how lucky we are
and not to take our comfortable lives for granted.

Any other infidels got their own way of dealing with this?

(nb I am no longer an atheist as some freaky guy has told me that I must
acknowledge god to be such .................. 🙄 )

I don't think each day is a blessing to be honest. I think some days suck monkeyballs and those days I wish I'd just stayed in bed.

Originally posted by Great King Rat
I don't think each day is a blessing to be honest. I think some days suck monkeyballs and those days I wish I'd just stayed in bed.

that's because you are not grateful that you have a bed to go to.



but, yes, although seeing the silver lining in every situation is a good philosophy, i agree there are some situations where that statement indeed fails. horribly.

Indeed not grateful. Happy, yes... but not grateful. Because grateful sounds like it's been given to me. And that would make me feel guilty. Because why would I be getting a bed, while children in Africa are getting AIDS?

Originally posted by wolfgang59
each day is a blessing was posted in another thread by UzumakiAi
and he added in parentheses "in a secular sense". I agree with him.
Each day is a blessing but we have no-one to thank.

Recently we (my family) have taken to thanking the FSM, tooth fairy or
other random "deity" at meal times to remind ourselves how lucky we are
and not to take o ...[text shortened]... t as some freaky guy has told me that I must
acknowledge god to be such .................. 🙄 )

As for *actually* giving thanks the FSM, the tooth fairy, and other magical entities comparable to Bible "God", Qu-ran "God", etc ... I see no point to it - really, it is a totally pointless exercise as far as I am concernedReveal Hidden Content.
I would much prefer to say my thanks to the friends and family who play their own parts in making my life worth living.

Originally posted by wolfgang59
each day is a blessing was posted in another thread by UzumakiAi
and he added in parentheses "in a secular sense". I agree with him.
Each day is a blessing but we have no-one to thank.

Recently we (my family) have taken to thanking the FSM, tooth fairy or
other random "deity" at meal times to remind ourselves how lucky we are
and not to take o ...[text shortened]... t as some freaky guy has told me that I must
acknowledge god to be such .................. 🙄 )

And infidel has such a nice ring to it...

I have to say that I don't see this as being a problem.

If you want to give thanks to imaginary beings to remind yourself not to take
them for granted. Then not being tied to a singular prescribed imaginary being
like the monotheists gives you much more freedom to have fun.

I mean if you find yourself stuck with only odd socks you can swear at the
Uncommon Sock Eater http://p.twimg.com/A9K2xf2CYAEw7_Y.jpg:large

If you have a draw that wont open you can blame Anoia minor goddess of things
that get stuck in drawers.

And if you go out on a drinking binge and DON'T get a hangover you can thank
Bilious the "Oh God of Hangovers"... [Who's having it for you]

Pantheism is just so much more fun that monotheism.

Particularly when you mix in a little Discworld... Of course you can invent your own
If you don't like any of the ones on offer.

Originally posted by wolfgang59
each day is a blessing was posted in another thread by UzumakiAi
and he added in parentheses "in a secular sense". I agree with him.
Each day is a blessing but we have no-one to thank.

Recently we (my family) have taken to thanking the FSM, tooth fairy or
other random "deity" at meal times to remind ourselves how lucky we are
and not to take o ...[text shortened]... t as some freaky guy has told me that I must
acknowledge god to be such .................. 🙄 )

I just saw this “remake” on my way out the door, so to speak. Like googlefudge, I don’t see how this is problematic. Gratefulness might just be an attitude, or an intuitional sense (or some such) that we acquired in the evolutionary process; it might have some practical evolutionary support behind it. It doesn’t need religion or superstition (not necessarily equating the two), or even a definitive explanation.

So, you acknowledge it, as a part of your humanity. Doing it in playful ways is fine (I think it was Alan Watts who said that seriousness and sincerity are not the same things, nor is the former required by the latter).

Originally posted by Great King Rat
Indeed not grateful. Happy, yes... but not grateful. Because grateful sounds like it's been given to me. And that would make me feel guilty. Because why would I be getting a bed, while children in Africa are getting AIDS?

you should be grateful for the random conditions that lead to you having a bed (or being born). grateful indeed is used rather loosely. you may be grateful that someone bumped into your father one day, making him spill his Guinness unto his trousers which caused him to get another beer at the precise moment your mother was getting a guinness, thus bonding over their love of guinness and conceiving you.



the rest is up to you.

I'm not grateful for being alive. It just happened. I didn't ask for it. Had I not been born I wouldn't have missed it. Now that I'm here I might as well make the best of it, but I'm not grateful for it. With regards to having been born, I feel completely neutral.

Originally posted by Great King Rat
I'm not grateful for being alive. It just happened. I didn't ask for it. Had I not been born I wouldn't have missed it. Now that I'm here I might as well make the best of it, but I'm not grateful for it. With regards to having been born, I feel completely neutral.

Being grateful for being born is, I agree, non-sensical. (Since if you had
not been born how ungrateful would you be????)

But I still think we should be grateful for winning the lottery of life:
not having to toil away 16 hours day, nor walk miles for fresh-water,
nor suffer with curable diseases due to lack of finance.

What is the average world wage? I've seen figures of US$10K but I reckon
without a few big earners its way lower than that.

I suppose it becomes a case of semantics with regards to "grateful". I'd rather say I was lucky to have been born in The Netherlands where there's plenty of everything compared to other places where indeed people's lives are much harder. That's a good motivation for me to give some of my luck (mostly in the form of money) to those other people.

Of course, it also helps that that kind of behaviour makes me feel good about myself 🙂

Originally posted by Great King Rat

Of course, it also helps that that kind of behaviour makes me feel good about myself 🙂

Yes.
Altruists are just selfish people who get off on giving!

😉

Kinda feel like I killed your thread with my boring "I'm not grateful" BS, so here's a little bump in case someone has something more substantial to add.

Love the word infidel, btw.

Originally posted by Great King Rat
Love the word infidel, btw.

For a small fee you can use it in your profile. 😉

Will my eternal soul suffice?