Thanksgiving and the Cosmological argument

Albert the Pious relies upon the Cosmological argument to claim that Thanksgiving is innately theological.

A haunting question is this: How do atheists observe Thanksgiving? I can easily understand what an atheist or agnostic would think of fellow human beings and feel led to express thankfulness and gratitude to all those who, both directly and indirectly, have contributed to their lives. But what about the blessings that cannot be ascribed to human agency?

Haunting? Really?

Mohler goes on to explain that the big blessing “that cannot be ascribed to human agency” is the existence of the universe itself, and our existence within it. Ho-hum. This is a restatement of the cosmological argument, the unsupported claim that there is no creation without a benevolent Creator.

  1. Apparently, Mohler hasn’t heard of the discovery of the Higgs Boson, which completes the atomic model and explains that the universe could indeed have appeared spontaneously, ex nihilo.

  2. The cosmological, or first cause, argument is relied upon by Muslims, Hindus … on and on. But even if there were a sentient ‘first cause,’ there is no good reason to suppose that it is the Christian god. After all, He is a relative newcomer to the pantheon. Why should He be allowed to swoop in and annex the credit when the identical claim has been made on behalf of thousands of older gods?

Once again, Nietzsche told us exactly what’s going on:

With severity and pedantry, the priest formulated once and for all, down to the large and small taxes he was to be paid (not to forget the tastiest pieces of meat, for the priest is a steak eater), what he wants to have, “what the will of God is.” From now on all things in life are so ordered that the priest is indispensable—marriage, sickness, death, not to speak of “sacrifices” (meals), the holy parasite appears in order to denature them — in his language: to “consecrate.”

The bottom line here is self-evident: If the preacher can’t butt-in somehow and make himself necessary, all he gets are leftovers.

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