Feel how deeply precious it is that you have been given life…

Why should God get all the glory? That’s what some guy (I did not check the name, but it is always guys) wondered about on Quora. Why do people thank God when something good is achieved, but not blame him when things go wrong? It ain’t fair, yadda yadda. (What, they don’t blame God? Go read the Book of Job and say that again with a straight face.)

Well, here’s a few thoughts on why.

Basically, to a believer, the relationship to God is like the relationship to parents, only more so. Without them you would not been here, and without God they would not been here, nor the world in general. If you think it is a good thing that the world exists, and if you think it is a good thing that you are in it, it behooves you to pay some respect to the Creator, if any.

Of course, if you start from the position that there is no Creator, it makes no sense to pay any respect in that direction. We know that.

Now if you think making the world was a big mistake, you have a legitimate quarrel with God. This is a very rare point of view, though. Most people who stay in the world think it has some good qualities.

From the point of view of the believer, lack of gratitude to God is like being a whiny child.
“Waah! My dad gave me a gift but it wasn’t as big as I wanted or as much fun as I wanted! Waah!”
“Waah! My God gave me a life but it wasn’t as long as I wanted or as comfortable as I wanted! Waah!”

Being given life is seen as a priceless opportunity by the believer. (Of course, most of us still want the biggest and most shiny version, given the chance. Nothing wrong with that, but sometimes that doesn’t happen, and we tell each other that it was perhaps not what we needed, and Dad knows best. This makes us feel better – “us” in this case being those who say it, not necessarily those on the receiving end, see Book of Job again.)

But of course, if you are not a believer in the first place, none of this makes sense. Humans, trees, rocks … all are just assemblages of molecules, shifting forms that arise and disappear into ultimate oblivion. There is no life, only organic chemistry. There is no hope, only electrochemical fluctuations in the brain. Nothing lasts, except entropy. We are random shapes born to be forgotten, drifting without volition through a brief existence on a temporary speck of dust in a vast, cold cosmos relentlessly winding down. A logical worldview – but not one that resonates with most people, at least not yet.