I wonder how people can be thankful to a deity after going through very traumatic experiences. Personally speaking, I was not thankful to the god I was raised with at any point after unpleasant ordeals during the time when I was trying very hard to be a believer. I wanted to tell him to go f**k himself. It was so hard not to say just that during our imaginary chats. “f**k you! I’m so sorry! I totally didn’t mean that! It was Satan causing mischief again. You know how it is. Hmmm… Maybe I should try my luck with Satan for all the good Jehovah does me. Goddamnit, there I go again…”
If a deity is all-powerful, he’s capable of preventing victimization. If he chooses not to, he’s at least partially culpable. The situation would be comparable to a big, strong man seeing an extremely weak individual abusing a child and deciding not to interfere. Disgusting.
I’m thankful that Jehovah isn’t real because I can’t get past the horror of that.
I’m not judging people who are thankful. I just don’t fully understand it. Sometimes I’m in awe of people’s strength and resiliency. It seems a bit of a shame to give any credit to a god, especially a god who is “jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” Often in holy books, the deity endorses the very trauma people experienced, not that everyone believes in inerrancy.
Just something I needed to get off my chest. I suppose if faith gives people comfort and enables them to survive for that reason it can be a very good thing.