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Säie: A dilemma for atheists?Edellinen säie: Death and mourning
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From: magi AT iki PISTE fi (Marko Grönroos)
Newsgroups: alt.atheism
Subject: Re: A dilemma for atheists?
Date: 24 Feb 2003 15:34:45 +0200
dgillesp <dgillesp AT swva PISTE net> writes:
> It's a 40 mile trip to the Orthodox Church and on the way today it
> started to snow. Living in the deep south most of my adult life,
> one of the things I missed most was snow in the winter time. Now
> living back in ah...er... "God's country", I am not only delighted
> but experience really strong feelings of gratitude every time snow
> begins to fall. A spontaneous heart felt "Thank You" just has to be
> expressed out loud, or at the least silently.
>
> A little farther down the road this question popped into my mind:
> When life has really been good to an atheist, and he experiences an
> overwhelming sense of gratitude, what is he to do? Since both
> Mother Nature and Lady Luck are totally indifferent, not even to
> mention unconscious, to whom or to what does an atheist express his
> thanks?
To my understanding thanking is a from of social behaviour where a
person acknowledges his appreciation for help. It is a sign that gives
feedback about the actual consequences of our actions. (For reciprocal
social behaviour the importance is somewhat obvious, but perhaps it
serves a purpose also in altruistic services.)
Nature is not a learning or feeling person that cares about
feedback. Of course we can appreciate the gifts of nature too, but I
really don't see why we would need to have an urge to thank for such
things.
However, as the well-being of nature is beneficial to us, we can show
our appreciation by doing reciprocal services to maintain the helpful
qualities of nature. In such a sense, we are in "social" relationship
with it.
You, as a christian, appreciate a beautiful fall of snow and thank the
God for it. What do you do when a lump of ice falls down from a tree
to your head? Curse the God? Wouldn't that be logical, if everything
nature does to you is caused by God?
--
-- Marko Grönroos, magi<at>iki.fi (http://www.iki.fi/magi/)
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