I am curious whether “Thank you, God, for these maple trees.” is a phrase you think or say, or if it’s a feeling of thankfulness towards a specific entity.
I think what’s going on is that feelings of thankfulness happen naturally, just as a part of ordinary life, and if your first instinct is to give them a religious outlet it takes a deliberate choice to think a different thought.
And then I thought, “No, wait, God didn’t make these maple trees. They grew out of the ground, from maple seeds, which came from other maple trees, which evolved from other kinds of trees over millions of years. These leaves are still yellow. They are still beautiful. I’m going to drop the God part and just focus on the color of the leaves, which I know is real.” In other words: change your focus to what you know is real.
I was raised as an atheist Jew, but didn’t attempt to apply consistancy to my beliefs until recently. Thankfulness in the form of blessings is fairly well ingrained, and I’ve always enjoyed them both for the tradition of completing a rituals that my ancestors did, and for the acknowledgement of the things that are right in the world. This is much easier when praying in a different language.
One approach has been to redirect the blessing from God (Baruch atah adonai, elohenu melech ha’olam) to the universe itself (Baruch atah ha’olam), which still keeps the form of the blessing while being more consistant with my beliefs. When I do this, it gives me time to think through the whole chain of existance that has lead to whatever I’m acknowledging.
This hack makes sense for blessings that are thankful for the provenance of a thing (e.g. the blessing that bread has been brought forth from the earth), but not so much for blessings that acknowledge a commandment (e.g. the blessing that we have been commanded to light candles).
Unfortunately, as happy as this has made me, I realized recently how badly the toxic Exodus meme had corrupted my ability to think rationally. Because it was part of my upbringing and reaffirmed each year at Passover, it’s near the root of the analogy chains that make up my thinking, and I don’t know if I can morally pass it on to my children.
The Exodus meme is the story of how Israelites became Jews after escaping Egypt. The tribe is persecuted by the world as a whole, and can take retribution against any group in retaliation. After the Israelites get the ten commandments, they proceed to invade, rape, murder, and enslave an innocent population that had nothing to do with what the Egyptions had done, all with God’s blessing and participation.
There is also the bit about Israel being a promised land. Even knowing that there was no God my whole life, it’s difficult for me to think about the political situation there without an itch at the base of my brain that says “but that land was promised to us!”
I was taught all of that as a history of my people, not as a religious truth, but it still is a foundational part of my thinking. One approach I’ve been considering has been passing it on from the perspective of the cities that were razed. But how do I do that going from a text that applauds their death?
That being said, I believe that there is happiness in knowing your roots, and in celebrating traditional rituals. Just talking about the universe as it is doesn’t fill the same void for a 5 year old. At what age do you tell a child that some of their ancestors were villains? Can you have rituals and traditions that acknowledge them without tacitly celebrating their actions? How solid does their foundation need to be before they can understand that their ancestors have been both victims and persecuters?
I am curious whether “Thank you, God, for these maple trees.” is a phrase you think or say, or if it’s a feeling of thankfulness towards a specific entity.
I’m not sure what the difference is.
I think what’s going on is that feelings of thankfulness happen naturally, just as a part of ordinary life, and if your first instinct is to give them a religious outlet it takes a deliberate choice to think a different thought.
I was raised as an atheist Jew, but didn’t attempt to apply consistancy to my beliefs until recently. Thankfulness in the form of blessings is fairly well ingrained, and I’ve always enjoyed them both for the tradition of completing a rituals that my ancestors did, and for the acknowledgement of the things that are right in the world. This is much easier when praying in a different language.
One approach has been to redirect the blessing from God (Baruch atah adonai, elohenu melech ha’olam) to the universe itself (Baruch atah ha’olam), which still keeps the form of the blessing while being more consistant with my beliefs. When I do this, it gives me time to think through the whole chain of existance that has lead to whatever I’m acknowledging.
This hack makes sense for blessings that are thankful for the provenance of a thing (e.g. the blessing that bread has been brought forth from the earth), but not so much for blessings that acknowledge a commandment (e.g. the blessing that we have been commanded to light candles).
Unfortunately, as happy as this has made me, I realized recently how badly the toxic Exodus meme had corrupted my ability to think rationally. Because it was part of my upbringing and reaffirmed each year at Passover, it’s near the root of the analogy chains that make up my thinking, and I don’t know if I can morally pass it on to my children.
Toxic Exodus meme?
The Exodus meme is the story of how Israelites became Jews after escaping Egypt. The tribe is persecuted by the world as a whole, and can take retribution against any group in retaliation. After the Israelites get the ten commandments, they proceed to invade, rape, murder, and enslave an innocent population that had nothing to do with what the Egyptions had done, all with God’s blessing and participation.
There is also the bit about Israel being a promised land. Even knowing that there was no God my whole life, it’s difficult for me to think about the political situation there without an itch at the base of my brain that says “but that land was promised to us!”
I was taught all of that as a history of my people, not as a religious truth, but it still is a foundational part of my thinking. One approach I’ve been considering has been passing it on from the perspective of the cities that were razed. But how do I do that going from a text that applauds their death?
That being said, I believe that there is happiness in knowing your roots, and in celebrating traditional rituals. Just talking about the universe as it is doesn’t fill the same void for a 5 year old. At what age do you tell a child that some of their ancestors were villains? Can you have rituals and traditions that acknowledge them without tacitly celebrating their actions? How solid does their foundation need to be before they can understand that their ancestors have been both victims and persecuters?