The question that makes fundies hostile

[Zazzy]

Me and my parents and their parents and theirs, have something to be grateful for BUT in addition, unlike you, I have Someone to be grateful to.

What have you got?

I am grateful to my parents for giving me a great education, a good work ethic, a love of literature, a healthy body, putting up with my endless dental disasters and giving me great (and expensive) teeth, and never hitting me.

Your religion - the no God hypothesis - is like looking at a temporary Christmas present under a temporary Christmas tree and thinking no one put it there, it just randomly appeared, there's no one to thank. No gratitude needed. Christmas presents are neither created nor destroyed. They have always been there. And it won't matter whether you open it or throw it in the trash can or ignore it.

Why isn't gratitude appropriate? I'm thrilled that I was born me, in a time and place where women have opportunities, in a socio-economic class that provided me with a really great up-bringing. Aside from my parents there is no one to thank, but I'm grateful nonetheless. I won an incredible lottery- not just to be here at all, but to be here in such a privileged spot.

And I don't know why you insist on the "atheism is a religion" thing.

Even if you are as happy (richly blessed) as me, what you temporarily have is accidental and random and ultimately pointless, because it is ALL the ongoing consequence of unguided, uncaring, unintelligent happenstance.

Yes. That's why it's like winning a huge lottery. It's awesome to have won it. I have never understood why religious folks find it offensive that it's all temporary and uncertain and fleeting. That makes it important that I maximize this small life. It's only pointless if I don't find a point to it.