An All-American Equal Opportunity Holiday

jonny5

"It is time to stop pretending that the "more violent and extreme elements" within Islam constitute a tiny minority and that this violent minority has nothing to do with the "real" Muslim religion." -You're right, let's stop pretending and call a spade a spade. Sam Harris is right.

"...Thanksgiving is for all Americans, of all races, ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs, or nonreligious beliefs." -Does this include religious beliefs that blowing up buildings is going to get that person to that fictitious
place filled with virgins and all the water and wine they could ever want? You did say ALL religious beliefs now.

Jake: "The original Thanksgiving with the Indians and Colonists was a very religious holiday."

Did those indians give thanks to the same god the colonists were thanking?

My family is widely dispersed across America, since we've all grown up we've all gone our separate ways. This is the time of year when we come together, when we make our best effort to actually be together, to see each other, to hug each other's kids, and to be with my parents and aunts and uncles. I am truly thankful for my family, and I don't owe anybody or any god for them.
I owe them the love they give to me, a debt I never tire of paying.

I wake up in Maine at my mother's house. Having arrived in the middle of the night, I look out the window, right away, to see this place I love, and discover that the sun is rising through clouds; the fields are iced green by hard frost; the hill is lavender. Thankfulness unfolds so naturally out of a moment like that; I'm not sure what human evolutionists say about this, but I'm inclined to believe that I've evolved to pay attention and be glad; that there's some survival value in doing so; that humans who can do that are likelier to survive the complications of consciousness, less likely to drink themselves to death or take reckless risks or just lose heart and stop working to find the next meal.
Meanwhile, people I love are sleeping nearby; people who are complete strangers to me drove safely all around me, which meant that I could arrive here; other people are working to save my country from its worst flirtation with fascism in my own lifetime. How can I not feel thankful? How can I doubt that the people who share this life with me are the most important place to send that thankfulness?

Growing up in a non-Christian and immigrant family the holiday of Thanksgiving was the best way to feel American.

Thanksgiving has become a secular holiday, made a national holiday by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 (see Jon Meacham's column in this morning's W Post). Belief in god is not a requirement for gratitude.
But let;s take this one step further. Chriswtmas is a religious holiday. As a fallen Catholic, I feel rather hypocritical celebrating Christmas.

Hi all,

Mike, an "empty act of gratitude" is when you give thanks without recognizing the sacrifice the other is doing for you.

I Thank Susan for sharing her time and her knowledge with us. Is it moral? yes. Spiritual? well, it creates an invisible link between both of us, might be spiritual too. But selfish and empty? Just the oposite.

Isn´t it selfisher and emptier having a "supermeal" for giving thanks to god when It´s you and your family, not god, who´s gonna eat it? Are you giving thanks to the farmers, etc, who´s knowledge allow you to eat everyday? well, we should...as you know, meal doesn´t fall from the sky.

Oh, and Jake, the original America had ships that dragged Africans here so they could be treated like cattle.

Are we allowed to move on from that tradition?

Oh, I guess not, because those were God-fearing men who did that, and their traditions must be served (unlike turkey-starved atheists).

I bear my own blame when my life

seems either bad or blank,

but when the world has smiled at me

I need someone to thank!

remember the web: www.mythwaronline.com

Thanksgiving!! turkey! and online mythwaronline!!

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enjoy Thanksgiving!!enjoy mwo!!!

...yes, and the original "Christmas" was a pagan holiday, as was Easter. Bottom line: transformation of religious holidays is normal and natural, and we secularists have as much to be thankful for as anyone else.

And a holiday that celebrates gratitude has obvious functions in promoting civic culture that I for one am delighted with.

Michael

Sorry, but you're just plain wrong. Thanksgiving is a religious holiday. You give-thanks to God for all of the blessings bestowed upon us. The original Thanksgiving with the Indians and Colonists was a very religious holiday.

I give thanks to God for giving me all the things I do not deserve. Forgiveness of my sins, and personal knowledge of the Creator, a purpose for living, a wonderful wife who loves me, my father and mother who taught me right from wrong and were examples for me, four lovely children, four siblings, a good stable job, good health, a peaceful and prosperous land to live in (though of course does not do what I would agree with all the time). I suppose these thoughts could be considered to be self-centered, but out of thankfulness flows service towards others, as Jesus said, "freely you have received, freely give." It would be even more selfish if I did not have any thankfulness at all and assumed that it was all due to me.

Oh come on Mike,
aren´t you overly rigid there?
Remembering what´s good in your life and not taking it for granted seems well enough for me.
It helps us to bond and to form a comunity, which is esential to human nature.

To whom do we give thanks? What for and why? Giving thanks to others for some benefit they have conferred upon is, in the end, a selfish act. It has no moral or spiritual basis, and, having none, makes no sense whatsoever. It is an empty act of gratitude.

I find this attitude incomprehensible.