To whom are we grateful?

Question

I have heard many nonbelievers (of a higher power) say that they are grateful for their current life. I understand that they might have a feeling of gratitude but how can there be any reality behind the feeling? Everything is an accident (no purpose), then how can we express gratitude to an accident?

Fireball: Yes, for believers there is no problem.

Don: Yes, you don't need religion but to whom are you grateful?

Jack and Huffy:
gratitude as just a feeling with no target behind it seems trivial. Why would people proudly tell me about their feelings?
Andrew: Evolution is a mindless process like weather or water flowing downhill. Do you express gratitude to water for flowing downhill?

Elizabeth: You are grateful to your parents for their wisdom in raising you. I wonder to whom your parents are grateful for their wisdom. You don't have to go back many generations before almost everyone would have been grateful to God.

Darwinsfriend: I think each scientist, doctor, etc. came to do their work through very particular circumstances that were, in your world view, accidental. Was the intelligence of Newton planned by his parents?

Answer 1

There are a lot of terms that would need to be defined for a meaningful discussion. By current life do they mean just being alive or the tangibles and experiences they have in their lives? Gratitude may imply a third party but not necessarity a divine one. I am grateful to my parents for raising me to be an educated self sufficient person rather than attributing my outcomes to a divine being for example. Feelings of gratitude and the word itself need definition. Is gratitude for some a word that means the same as a deep appreciation, this can be an equally deep feeling that doesn't require a third party. Finally, even where a third party is thought of and comes into play doesn't mean anything about the validity of the gratitude. Many children may feel a deep gratitude to Santa that they believe is real. The gratitude is just misplaced appreciation for the real cause. Which in the case of Deities may just be appreciation for Nature and evolution of life.

But doesn't saying if we go back generations most people (not all mind you as there have been societies and people we have knowledge of who weren't believers) would credit God the same as saying that if you go back far enough in life you find a time when most children are grateful to Santa for gifts? It doesn't imply the gratitude in a deity is valid.

Answer 2

I'm not altogether sure that every soul who has walked this Earth of ours would express gratitude for having been given the pleasure. I believe however that we all come here with a lifeplan in place for this particular journey. If we don't remember now, we will remember later. In God there is no 'accident'.

Answer 3

1] Gratitude doesn't need a target.

2] You needn't worry about the depth of feeling of others concerning gratitude, nor of anything else. You are in no position to measure. Similarly, "how can they?" is meaningless, if they succeed in doing so to their own satisfaction.

Answer 4

I am grateful for my family. They have been there for me during some really hard times. I am thankful to God, too, if He exists. I'm not going to get in an arguement with you about it, though. I told you what I was thankful for and you can either accept it or reject it. That's it. Have a good Sunday.
--John

Answer 5

Incorrect.I can express gratitude to all those who have gone before me and helped to make the comfortable life I now have.People such as scientists,doctors,inventors etc.
There is nothing accidental about the work they did.

Answer 6

It's weird hey, I mean, what they are doing is comparing the concept of being alive to that of being dead. No one has ever been dead before and lived to talk about it. For all we the living know, dead might be great. But then again, it might not. Personally, being 'grateful' for merely being alive is not something I feel very often.

Answer 7

Life is a wonderful experience--why no be grateful for it--surely it can't be more wonderful by worshiping one of the worlds deity for it??

Answer 8

I can be grateful about anything. I don't need any religion to tell me what to be grateful to.

Love and blessings Don

Answer 9

I'm grateful to God.
I am grateful to my parents for giving me life.
I am grateful to my friends.

Answer 10

I'm grateful to the Phillip Morris tobacco for this smooth menthol cigarette I'm smoking.

By the way, your question has no right answer.

Cheers mate!