Gratitude for being here and having good things is not the same as worship. Neither is awe. The religious argue that without faith you end up with no God to say thanks to. That is a weak argument for faith or that there is probably a God for gratitude does not amount to worship. Worship is service of a supernatural being and all you give that being, including your gratitude, is from him in the first place. Plus to accuse the atheist or religious doubter of being ingrates is hardly loving. Also real worship and real gratitude are freely given. Pressure is out of the question. Anyone calling you entitled and cold and ungrateful is pressuring.
The fact is, whether we see nature as the power higher than us or see God as a force and not some one who is relationship material, gratitude will happen.
Let me explain.
Gratitude is recognising that something is good. It does not need good to be intended. In fact there is more gratitude in good being just there unintended than there is in somebody making it their own by intending it. After all unless good is there whether intended or not nobody can intend it. Intention is not everything for if a mad or hypnotised person thought they were doing us a favour by killing us we would be far from grateful to that person. The goodness of their intention would be the very reason we give them no gratitude whatsoever in our heads or heart.
The honour that is gratitude cannot be given. It is earned so it is not a gift to the good person. They are getting what they earned. So despite that we give it as a gift. It follows that we can be grateful for all that is good in our lives even if it has nothing to do with God or any person. Gratitude is what we do for ourselves for it is nice to feel grateful. To argue that we need a god to be grateful to forgets that gratitude is not logical but illogical. Gratitude is good for us for it is us being better than the truth by mastering it. We are grateful despite it. Gratitude can be stirred as long as something benefits you and it does not matter if gratitude makes sense.
Gratitude is a form of joy mixed with surprise. Gratitude is not so much about the fact that somebody cares but about that somebody benefited you. If God for some reason cannot do much for you his good intentions and love will mean little or nothing to you. He only gets gratitude when he is able to help and has helped. Gratitude does not fit the idea of a God who is to be loved for his own sake.
Gratitude is an attitude. Professor Robert Emmons, University of California, Davis, states "Gratitude is an attitude not a feeling that can be easily willed. Even if you are not satisfied with your life as it is today, if you go through grateful motions, the emotion of gratitude should be triggered. It is like improving your posture and, as a result, becoming more energetic and self-confident - Attitude change often follows behavior change. By living the gratitude that we do not necessarily feel, we can begin to feel that gratitude that we live." Lesson: it is work that makes you grateful not self-hypnosis or even a happy event and certainly not God or belief in God.
Thanking God or anyone for being good means you really thank goodness not him in the sense that he lined up with goodness and sacrificed his own will to line up. So though we thank people we really mean we thank goodness.
Love is no good without gratitude so gratitude is fundamental and love is not.
The components of gratitude
Gratitude comes when you think you don’t deserve something nice and you get it. Maybe you think it comes from luck which is not about what you deserve or don't deserve. Maybe you think you are bad and deserve bad things. It does not matter.
Gratitude comes from being helped by a being that might spitefully refuse to help you but helps you anyway. Gratitude to a loving God who never sins or harms is an oxymoron. It's a self-righteous pretence.
Not deserving something could mean getting something nice though you deserve to get something bad.
Not deserving could mean that you are given something and the giver does not care what you deserve or if you deserve.
Being happy that somebody has given for and to you comes from the assurance that others care about you and makes you feel safer. It is this that matters more than the fact that you received something without deserving. The fellow-feeling expressed towards you is what matters to you more than the gift.
A woman knows she is totally hated by her son's boss. She goes and asks the boss to give her son a pay rise for his sake not hers. The boss reluctantly agrees. The woman will still be grateful. The point is that gratitude is a response of joy to something going right. She is able to feel tremendous gratitude for a favour that is not done for her as if it were done for her. The favour is an insult to her in the sense that it is given without any respect for her. But she is still grateful.
Gratitude is not very rational which is its charm. Believers who say you need a God to thank are making it too rational. If you do that, you will rob gratitude of its power and value.
Gratitude that is based on you getting something good when you feel you should get something bad or nothing is not healthy and is pathetic.
Gratitude that is based on you getting something from somebody who does not care what you deserve has a sting. Part of of it is about feeling you should get something bad.
Gratitude that is based on you getting something from somebody who is not even thinking if you deserve is the best.
We see then that gratitude is undermined by a God for he would be fair and even if he is generous he is still thinking you don't deserve it for your sins or because you are not praying enough.