Whom Does an Atheist Thank at Thanksgiving?
Whom Does an Atheist Thank at Thanksgiving?
Pastor Larry L. Long
I love Thanksgiving; thankfully it’s just around the corner!
Among the holidays observed by our Nation—including both Christmas and Easter—it is my opinion that Thanksgiving remains the most uniquely religious in its celebration.
This may seem an odd thing to say given the religious significance of both Christmas and Easter, especially since these two holidays represent the two main events around which God’s redemptive work and purposes were accomplished for all humanity. Without the incarnation of Christmas, the atoning cross of Easter would be empty; without Christ’s death and resurrection, “our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Cor. 15:14). So, as celebrated by Christians, these two holidays—or at least the events they represents—are clearly more significant than Thanksgiving. They are the two events for which we have the most to be thankful.
But I speak in favor of the uniquely God-focused celebration of Thanksgiving from within a context that has seen both Christmas and Easter so secularized with reindeer, elves, Santa Claus, and egg-laying bunnies that little remains of their sacred meaning in the hearts and minds of many Christians today. Their true significance has almost certainly been lost to our national consciousness.
Thanksgiving, on the other hand, remains a uniquely religious celebration precisely because it is so difficult to secularize. For to celebrate it—that is, to give thanks—begs the question: To whom?
To whom do we give thanks? Better yet, whom does an atheist thank at Thanksgiving? Does he thank his parents for bringing him into the world? Does she thank her boss for giving her a job? Or do they thank the Native American Indians for helping the pilgrims make it through their first difficult year? (That’s about the best our public schools can do without ignoring the holiday and its historical roots altogether.) All of these are certainly worthy objects of a heartfelt thanks, but then whom does one thank for parents and jobs and Indians, ad infinitum?
When Governor Bradford of Plymouth Plantation proclaimed the first celebration of Thanksgiving on the North American continent after the harvest of 1621, God was clearly the primary object of their thanksgiving, even though they also expressed appreciation to the Native Americans, Somoset and Squanto, for their help in getting through that first difficult winter by teaching them to plant corn. When President Washington in 1789 appointed this day to be set aside as a national expression of thanksgiving for “the establishment of a form of government necessary for safety and happiness,” the record shows that he too had God primarily in mind.
In this same spirit, we too must keep God always before us as we celebrate this holy day by resisting with our every fiber the tides of secularism that are threatening to wash over us. For without God as the ultimate object of our thanksgiving, this holiday is empty—even if our plates and stomachs are not.
Pastor Larry L. Long
I love Thanksgiving; thankfully it’s just around the corner!
Among the holidays observed by our Nation—including both Christmas and Easter—it is my opinion that Thanksgiving remains the most uniquely religious in its celebration.
This may seem an odd thing to say given the religious significance of both Christmas and Easter, especially since these two holidays represent the two main events around which God’s redemptive work and purposes were accomplished for all humanity. Without the incarnation of Christmas, the atoning cross of Easter would be empty; without Christ’s death and resurrection, “our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Cor. 15:14). So, as celebrated by Christians, these two holidays—or at least the events they represents—are clearly more significant than Thanksgiving. They are the two events for which we have the most to be thankful.
But I speak in favor of the uniquely God-focused celebration of Thanksgiving from within a context that has seen both Christmas and Easter so secularized with reindeer, elves, Santa Claus, and egg-laying bunnies that little remains of their sacred meaning in the hearts and minds of many Christians today. Their true significance has almost certainly been lost to our national consciousness.
Thanksgiving, on the other hand, remains a uniquely religious celebration precisely because it is so difficult to secularize. For to celebrate it—that is, to give thanks—begs the question: To whom?
To whom do we give thanks? Better yet, whom does an atheist thank at Thanksgiving? Does he thank his parents for bringing him into the world? Does she thank her boss for giving her a job? Or do they thank the Native American Indians for helping the pilgrims make it through their first difficult year? (That’s about the best our public schools can do without ignoring the holiday and its historical roots altogether.) All of these are certainly worthy objects of a heartfelt thanks, but then whom does one thank for parents and jobs and Indians, ad infinitum?
When Governor Bradford of Plymouth Plantation proclaimed the first celebration of Thanksgiving on the North American continent after the harvest of 1621, God was clearly the primary object of their thanksgiving, even though they also expressed appreciation to the Native Americans, Somoset and Squanto, for their help in getting through that first difficult winter by teaching them to plant corn. When President Washington in 1789 appointed this day to be set aside as a national expression of thanksgiving for “the establishment of a form of government necessary for safety and happiness,” the record shows that he too had God primarily in mind.
In this same spirit, we too must keep God always before us as we celebrate this holy day by resisting with our every fiber the tides of secularism that are threatening to wash over us. For without God as the ultimate object of our thanksgiving, this holiday is empty—even if our plates and stomachs are not.
Comment
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Comment by Discuss Orama on January 3, 2010 at 1:47pm - Well, I'm sorry to disturb you. Hope your holidays were warm and wonderful.
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Comment by Pastor Larry L. Long on December 31, 2009 at 8:10pm -
My article did not say that atheists couldn't celebrate Thanksgiving. I was only wondering whom atheists thanked at Thanksgiving. When you suggested that they thanked no one, feeling merely "thankful," I suggested that the word and the emotion, to be meaningful, needs both a subject and an object.
It is indeed exhausting to try to communicate with those who do not share your worldview.
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Comment by Discuss Orama on December 31, 2009 at 2:14pm
- I think we're off track here. Obviously, there can be no proof, as that is the nature of faith, yes? The question was who an atheist thanks at Thanksgiving. I was trying to help you understand the answer. If you want to insist atheists can't celebrate Thanksgiving because they don't believe in God, then you will never understand and there's no point trying to discuss it.
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Comment by Pastor Larry L. Long on December 30, 2009 at 10:35pm
- Proof? What exactly would constitute proof for you?
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Comment by Discuss Orama on December 30, 2009 at 4:05pm
- It sure seems like you are dismissing my use of the word love, as well as feeling thankful. One loves whether or not it is returned. One can love life. The love is real. Your argument that one needs to love or thank someone in order for it to be meaningful is not convincing to me. I am not dismissing your point. You just have not proved it yet.
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Comment by Pastor Larry L. Long on December 30, 2009 at 12:46am
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When you use the word love I do not think you mean God, since you do not believe in God. I also do not say "I God you" when I say I love you. (When Christians quote Scripture as saying that "God is love," we do not mean by that that "love is God.")
You are dismissing my position as mere semantics? That's too easy. You keep avoiding the essence of my argument, that to give thanks (or to be thankful), in order to be meaningful, requires an I/Thou relationship. Of course, when one doesn't believe in God, language itself becomes meaningless (i.e., postmodernism), so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Giving thanks is a lot like sharing love. Someone else needs to be involved, unless it is purely narcissitic.
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Comment by Discuss Orama on December 29, 2009 at 8:35pm
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I see, so when I use the word love you think I mean God. To me I mean love, as in "I love you." I don't say I God you, so I don't feel I mean what you say I mean. This is your semantics argument you referred to. When I say there is no God because I have free will you think this is contradictory. It still doesn't prove God to me, except to say that love is God, and since I love, I must therefore believe in God. This sounds backwards to me.
I believe I express my biology when I express love. I believe non-humans can express this same feeling. I still don't see how God is part of it.
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Comment by Pastor Larry L. Long on December 29, 2009 at 8:22pm
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The inconsistency is expressed by you even as you found it necessary to use "a theological term" (a God-logos term = soul) to explain why it is valuable to be thankful, only to switch your language to "Turkey Day" at the end. I understand that it "means a lot" to you, and I agree wholeheartedly with your desire to express the "love you share," but you are necessarily borrowing all of your language for meaning from theology (i.e., from a worldview that involves love and meaning and freewill).
If, for example, there is no God, you may wish to use the language of God (love) to express your feelings, but if there is no God, then love becomes a meaningless concept as well, because we are mere automaton, expressing nothing of will, merely determined by our biology, which, incidentally, is only accidental. This is the hurdle that atheistic naturalism has struggled to overcome ever since it entered the race.
Don't you get it? You can't have your Thanksgiving pie and eat it too!
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Comment by Discuss Orama on December 29, 2009 at 1:40pm
- Why be thankful? I suppose I can use a theological term: because it centers the soul. Because it is the right thing to do. Because it expresses the love we share. Because we are aware of how awful the world can be and how much suffering there is and we are thankful for what we have.Perhaps you can help me understand where the inconsistency is. When we feel thankful on Thanksgiving, how is that inconsistent? How is it meaningless? It means a lot to us, as I mentioned about my nephew liking Turkey Day more than any other.
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Comment by Pastor Larry L. Long on December 28, 2009 at 9:36pm
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I'm glad you're thankful for important people in your life, but I was not asking what to be thankful for. I was asking why--why be thankful at all? If there is no one to be thankful to, why bother? Tell me you're thanful to your parents for their love and support, I'm interested. Tell me you're feeling thankful, but for nothing and to no one in particular, who cares? Thankfulness, to be meaningful requires an I/Thou relationship. Otherwise it is meaningless. If you are telling me you want to be thankful, but there is no "other" to which you wish to express your thanks, your thanksgiving is meaningless. This is a philosophical argument, not a theological one. You ARE being inconsistent.
If you wish to continue this discussion, avoiding this issue will be self-defeating.
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