by Keith Bassham
A couple of years ago during the Thanksgiving season, it came to me that a lot of people in media were talking about thankfulness and being thankful and the need for being thankful, and I began to ask, “To whom or to what are these people being thankful?” Since a growing percentage of the population claims not to believe in God, who do they intend to thank? Add to that the larger group who acknowledges some form of deity yet deems that deity to be mostly irrelevant or hobbled, and the same question applies. Who are these people thanking, and for what?
One atheist writing on the subject claims that those of his “faith” can and should be thankful. To whom? People — farmers, soldiers, veterans, engineers, doctors, friends, family. That is plausible, and we believers can echo those thanksgivings, but some time back Al Mohler at Southern Baptist Seminary had a column that laid out the atheist’s quandary. He noted a professor of humanities without a belief in God had written this paragraph:
Hiking through a nearby woods on a late summer day recently, I followed the turning path and suddenly saw a pristine lake, then walked down a hill to its edge as birds chirped and darted about, stopping at a clearing to register the warmth of the sun against my face. Feelings welled up: physical pleasure, delight in the sounds and sights, gladness to be out here on this day. But something else as well, curious and less distinct, a vague feeling more like gratitude than anything else but not towards any being or person I could recognize. Only half-formed, this feeling didn’t fit into any easily discernable category, evading my usual lenses and language of perception.
Mohler’s observation is my own: the professor wants to be grateful — you can hear it in the writing — but he does not believe in God, so who may receive that thanks he wants to much give? The cosmos is not the product of farmers, soldiers, veterans, engineers, doctors, friends, and family. To paraphrase President Obama, they “didn’t build that.” The farmer may provide labor and toil, but not the soil nor the life bound in the center of the seed. The soldier may guard your freedom, but freedom itself is bestowed upon us by the Creator according to the deists who founded our country. Thank the engineer for the bridges and dams, but not the water they seek to overcome and control. I think you can see the point.
Only a believer can give meaningful thanks for all things.
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Remember to vote in the election November 6. Millions of Christians fail to do so every election. Pray. Prepare. Participate.