Thank You For This Meal
I used to thank god for all the food that I ate whether it be a great lunch or just a piece of candy. In fact, I also thanked him for the air I breathe, for the good grades I had in class and just about for anything that I enjoyed in this world. But now that I’m an atheist, I realized how stupid I was thanking god for all these.
Why, you ask? Well because I always keep on thanking god for stuff like that and yet forgot to thank my mother for the tasteful meal that she made or my grandfather for the 1 peso he gave me so I can buy my candy. I forgot to thank my grandmother for being there when I was in trouble. I forgot to thank my classmates who helped me with stuff I didn’t understand in class. Actually, I forgot to thank so many people for the so many good things I had in life and yet I managed to thank a god that I don’t see and is high unlikely to exist.
My wife remains to be a Christian and my kids still hold on to the christian ways that I taught them and when it’s time to eat, I hear them thanking god for the meal that we are about to take and yet they don’t even bother to thank me for the work that I did to ensure that there’s food on the table. But it’s not just me. I also don’t hear my kids thanking their mom for cooking and preparing the food plus all the hard work that she did to make sure that we have somethuing delicious to eat.
So, what do I do? Well, after they pray, I sometimes say thank you to their mom for cooking. I also thank the kids for preparing the table if they helped their mom do it. But where’s all the sense in this? If you still can’t see it then you’re probably blind. And if you tell me that all things come from god then you should at least thank “the vessels” that god used, right?
For years, Christianity has taught man to thank god for a lot of stuff and yet neglected the very fact that it is man who did the hard work which therefore makes man more worthy of thanksgiving than god himself.
Tell me, when was the last time you thanked other people for the good things they did? Have you ever bothered saying thank you to your mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, brother, sister, children, other relatives, teacher, neighbor and your household maid? Funny isn’t it that religion teaches us to thank an invisible being in the sky and yet not teach us to thank those who we can see whom I think needs to hear the words “thank you” much more.
Posted in Thoughts of a Filipino Atheist
July 29th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
A priest was walking past a cottage and admired the lovely garden. He spoke to the gardener and said “What a beautiful garden, how wonderful are the works of the Lord.”
The gardener replied “Yes, Father, but you should have seen this garden when the Lord had it to himself!”
July 30th, 2008 at 8:21 am
“For years, Christianity has taught man to thank god for a lot of stuff and yet neglected the very fact that it is man who did the hard work…”
You must have been raised in a different Christian denomination than me. By example I have been taught to thank and pray for people. It is through people that the work of the Lord is accomplished. When asked what was the greatest commandment Jesus did answer (and I paraphrase): To love God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself.
I feel bad that your parents did not teach you to thank people for the blessings you received through them. I’m glad to hear that you are now teaching your children to thank others. Thanking others is not only the polite thing to do, but will help them keep the commandment that Jesus tells us is the most important of all the commandments.
July 30th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Kenny, you poor, ignorant bastard.
July 30th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Hi Kenny!
It’s nice of you to “pray for people” and yes, I too was taught to do that when I was still a Christian. But praying for people and actually thanking them is a different thing.
And oh please, my parents did teach me to thank people. What made you think they didn’t or were you just make assumptions? What I was pointing out to in this blog post is the mere fact that majority of Christians would thank god but neglect thanking the actual people who did the hard work.
Mike
July 30th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
I thoroughly enjoyed your post, Mr. Lopez. The second paragraph nearly brought a tear to my eye and reminded me vividly of how much the pious have their heads in the clouds.
I think back upon the theological broodings of Martin Luther, who refused to extend his philosophies in aid of the peasants revolting against their feudal lords.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:15 am
Well said. Bravo.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:55 am
..i feel sorry for the people who take authority as the truth as opposed to truth as the authority..
religion is fake, its a position of power exploitation that government has to make people world-wide their puppets
July 31st, 2008 at 4:14 am
Being raised an atheist, Mike I can’t help but say your post comes off as a touch bitter. Especially in response to Kenny. His response of praying for those who don’t share his views is, I imagine his way of saying he’s sorry, you being raised in such a manner should understand that. Also, your original post does make it sound as though you aren’t teaching your children whom they ought to be thanking.
If you are an atheist, then you have has much right to teach your children as your wife does. If anything, it sounds like you’re (again) bitter that you allow the views of your wife to override your own.
Boo Hoo.
If you truly understood anything about atheism, then you would expose those kids to all aspects of faith and rationalism. Allow them to make up their own minds.
Remember, conversion is the marketplace of christians, freedom of thought is where we reside.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Hi Dilla,
I have to admit that my original had a touch of bitterness. I don’t however see any bitterness in my reply to Kenny. Praying to god as a form of saying sorry to men I think is a cowardly act. If he should say sorry then I think he should direct to the actual people.
As for my children, I do expose them to the religions of the world for as much as I can. I give them “open doors” so to speak and encourage them to look into it. I am totally opposed to giving children only a single view on things. That said, I’d be a hypocrite if I just tell them about atheism or just about Christianity. I try my best to show them every religion for as much as their little minds can handle at the moment.
I think either my writing is poor (if so, I’m sorry I’ll try better next time hehehe.) OR you misunderstood my statements. Either way, things like these happen.
I actually agree with you in everything you said about atheism.
Cheers!
August 1st, 2008 at 1:05 am
I only wish I could be there is a few hundred/thousand years when these great beliefs are taught to little children as an interesting footnote in history. As we speak of the druids, of stone henge and Mythras.
August 1st, 2008 at 1:07 am
I am a releatively recent atheist myself and my wife is fortunately not much into religion. And having both been been brought up as Catholics I can relate 100% to what Mike wrote.
I too had a tear in the corner of my eye. I must remember to thank my wife for the wonderful meal she will prepare tonight and will not demand such thing when it is my turn to cook.
I have a very young son (2 and half year old). The pressure from the family for him to be brought up as a Catholic will be very strong on my family’s side (so much so that we did baptise him; we rationalised by saying that it serves as a presentation of our wonderful son to the community but lately even that that excuse won’t do for us; we caved in to pressure, period). It will be hard to inform him on why some people believe in God while managing not to upset anyone in the family.
Keep it up Mike. One day your sons will see the light. The right light. Just make sure they read well and learn a lot, the rest will come by naturally – at least that’s what I hope, for both you and me…
August 1st, 2008 at 4:38 am
Just tell your children that the work of one single man or woman is worth 10,000 people praying. Tell them to value the world they can see and understand – the people they live with and that friends and family are worth more than 10.000 fictional false gods. Please do it.
August 2nd, 2008 at 7:11 am
I ran into this recently with my daughter. She spent some time with my wife’s parents and came back with a lot of “knowledge” of God, and one day wanted to say grace. While my wife is a believer, she’s avoided this out of respect for me.
I asked my daughter why she wanted to do this, and she said that she needed to thank God for making the food.
I pointed out that she watched her mother make the food, so she knows God didn’t make it.
She then said that God put the food in our refrigerator and pantry. I reminded her that she goes with us to the grocery store when we buy the food and bring it home and put it in the refrigerator.
She then told me that God puts the food on the shelves at the grocery store. I told her that the people who work at the grocery store stock the shelves.
She then told me God gives the food to the people at the grocery store. I explained the food is delivered to the grocery store on trucks driven by people.
She said God puts the food on the trucks. I told her people load up the trucks at the other end.
She said that God made the food that they put on those trucks. I explained that people grew the food on farms, or made the food in factories that gets put on those trucks.
She then pretty much just dropped the subject.
But let’s just pretend for a moment (or believe, if you do), that God’s the catalyst for all of that. He’s somehow the driving force (as though humans, themselves, can’t be the driving force behind their own survival and nourishment). Clearly there’s a pretty long line of people that need to be thanked before we get all the way to him, don’t you think? And as we don’t spend ten minutes before every meal honoring the people more directly connected to our meal, I think I’d just as well leave off him off, as well. It’s like accepting an Oscar and thanking the owner of the studio, but not the director, writer, producer, DP, casting director, camera operators, ADs, grips, electricians, prop masters, etc. If you’re going to leave off most of them, you’re better off not saying thank-yous at all.
August 2nd, 2008 at 11:22 am
kenny is a complete twit!
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:48 am
[...] my electronic travels today, I stumbled upon a blog post from this guy Mike. He talks about how he used to thank god for everything good that happened to him, such as praying [...]
August 4th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Atheist – I may be poor and ignorant, but I know I’m not a bastard and have papers to prove it.
heyo – with all that you have added to this conversation I will take the complete twit statement from you as a compliment.
Mike – First let me thank you for writing your post. I did enjoy reading it. I understand what you are trying to say, I just don’t agree with your conclusions. In your response to my comment you asked why I thought your parents didn’t teach you to thank people. The reason for my wrong assumption was because you wrote the following:
“Well because I always keep on thanking god for stuff like that and yet forgot to thank my mother for the tasteful meal that she made or my grandfather for the 1 peso he gave me so I can buy my candy. I forgot to thank my grandmother for being there when I was in trouble. I forgot to thank my classmates who helped me with stuff I didn’t understand in class. Actually, I forgot to thank so many people for the so many good things I had in life and yet I managed to thank a god that I don’t see and is high unlikely to exist.”
I’m sorry if I got it wrong. I did not mean to offend. After you corrected me about your parents teachings you go on to say:
“What I was pointing out to in this blog post is the mere fact that majority of Christians would thank god but neglect thanking the actual people who did the hard work.”
That is not the experience that I have had with Christians or Jews or Muslims or Hindus or Agnostics or Atheists.
Yes there are people who do not appreciate what other people do for them and do dot thank people. Those people were just raised wrong, it has nothing to do with there religion or lack of religion.
These are just my opinions and we all know what opinions are worth.
August 4th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Hi Kenny,
I think you are right in saying that it is more about family upbringing than religion. However, I’d still find it odd for members of a supposed ‘moral’ organization such as the Christian church to actually be mostly unthankful to man and just be thankful to god.
You may have a different experience and I envy you for that but honestly, the majority sees it otherwise.
Mike
August 5th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Mike,
I think that must be what it is, you and I have had different experiences.
I do not blame you at all for finding it odd for Christians to show no thanks to man and just God. I think it is not only odd, but also not very Christ like. Hopefully some of the Christians you are talking about will see your post and change their ways.
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:41 am
[...] my electronic travels today, I stumbled upon a blog post from this guy Mike. He talks about how he used to thank god for everything good that happened to him, such as praying [...]
December 27th, 2008 at 9:52 am
a bastketball player once said in a shoe commercial “Just Believe in Yourself”, I believe that’s true, because in this world of ours, everything is made possible.
Do you believe that the acts of men are much better than acts of God? sorta. Just look around. The TV set, the aircon, the computer, the internet, it was all made by, “Man” and, not by a supreme being whom people believe into.
Good day.
December 27th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Hey, don’t forget that some supreme being created man which in effect makes all of man’s creations the creations of this supreme being as well. LOL. I’m pretty sure that’s what they’d say. =)
December 27th, 2008 at 10:24 am
kaya nga eh. isang mahabang debate.
good day.
May 18th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
..Then it’s your shortcoming for forgetting to thank the people who’s done you good, you don’t have to drag God’s name in your own mistakes..
and another thing, do you really need to hear your children saying “thank you” for everything you’ve done for them?
Another childish thought..