What is the point of saying grace before a meal?

[Rival]

I never understood why it was called "Grace"....?
I call it "giving thanks" because when someone gives you a gift, its nice to say

The two words are linked. The Italians say gratzie for thanks just as the Spanish say gracias. These are etymologically linked. Basically the same word.

 

[columbus]

So, is "grace" just an empty gesture and empty words? Does it actually mean anything to most people, or is it just something we're supposed to say before a meal?

While everyone is an individual, we are also part of a vast, interdependent, web. Eating a meal is a really good time to recognize that fact, because the connection is so concrete. And because we usually gather together in groups for meals.

So I see grace as a sort of group acknowledgement and celebration of that aspect of life, which is easily overlooked as a general rule. It doesn't much matter what the words used are.
Tom

 

[Sha'irullah]

"What is the point of saying grace before a meal?"

To give the soup a chance to cool?

I swear you are so cheesy you smell like parmesan

 

[Koldo]

I don't say grace, but scientific research has shown that consciously being thankful for things we have can increase psychological well being.

It can be argued that saying grace, prayer, etc. can benefit the individual regardless of whether or not there is a god to hear it.

'Ignorance is bliss'.
Would you rather be ignorant ?

 

[Sleeppy]

I do, but that's beside the point. It's humans who feed other humans, not God. There is no reason to thank God for the food we eat.

Starvation isn't the result of food shortage, as you note, there being waste. It is the result of ignorance, indifference and inefficiency.

None of which describe God, but humans.

 

[Sleeppy]

'Ignorance is bliss'.
Would you rather be ignorant ?

In some things, you do value ignorance.

 

[Koldo]

In some things, you do value ignorance.

Care to name them ?

 

[Guy Threepwood]

I've always found it strange that a god would create an animal that needs to masticate and swallow organic matter of other living creatures to fuel it. What a horribly inefficient system.

If you examine the food chain, humans only get about 1/1000th of the sun's energy through this process. That is incredibly wasteful.

This scarcity is ultimately the source of power and class warfare in human history. The original population centers of ancient city states centered around granaries to avoid starvation in lean times, leading to social classes and other such human nonesense. Wars are fought over land and resources all the time, and the frailty of the human body's need for food can be exploited.

Consuming other life for your own existence is naturally violent, and demands that we must have control over our environment to feel safe. Imagine how many young humans around the world pick up a gun for the first time and join a cause because it leads to the only stable food source they have access to.

Imagine if humans has photosynthetic skin to absorb energy through sunlight, or an organelle in the cell that produced a low level nuclear fission, or we could break down nitrogen as a chemical fuel source through our breathing.

Why must there be an energy exchange at all? Apparently, many who believe in a creator also believe in a soul. Our souls won't have a fuel source in heaven, so why the body on earth? Couldn't a god just "magic" the continued existence of a hunan's life without food? It can raise them from the dead, apparently. . . So there is some precedent for biological overrides.

No, if anyone designed this requirement, then they only want to see suffering through scarcity. if I did believe in such a creator god, I'd be cursing them instead of thanking them.

God did create a world where life survives through absorbing sunlight... this life is very successful, covers 6% of the planet, outlives almost everything else..

This world still exists, for Lichen

would you trade places? me neither- there's your answer

 

[Kuzcotopia]

God did create a world where life survives through absorbing sunlight... this life is very successful, covers 6% of the planet, outlives almost everything else..

This world still exists, for Lichen

would you trade places? me neither- there's your answer

That's it?

False dilemma - Wikipedia

 

[Grandliseur]

As I've often heard it said, there's no such thing as a free lunch, so no one, not even God, is actually "giving" us any food. The way food prices are these days, it would appear that those who supply us with food are being well compensated for their efforts, so even they don't need any more thanks than what they're getting.

As a kid, I remember we would say before each meal: "Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen."

Considering how many people go hungry in this world, it seems that God's blessings and generosity only go so far. In the West, a lot of food is wasted, and some people eat far more than they actually appear to need.

So, is "grace" just an empty gesture and empty words? Does it actually mean anything to most people, or is it just something we're supposed to say before a meal?

I think it is good to be gracious, grateful for what we get even though the money may come from a paycheck. All good things come from above philosophy. I try to give thanks for meals, but admit that being alone and just having some random food for many meals, I may forget once in awhile, but if I took a bite and belatedly gave thanks, I still try to do so.

I am quite aware of how easy things can be taken away from me; so, I thank God for the provision I have. Only the young may be unaware how quickly things can change from having plenty to squat.

 

[columbus]

None of which describe God, but humans.

According to my Bible, we are made in God's image. Doesn't speak well for Him.
Tom

 

[Guy Threepwood]

That's it?

False dilemma - Wikipedia

You tell me

Ask yourself why you would not want to trade places with what you just proposed, a life form that has no challenges to meet, and so by definition does not enjoy problem solving of any kind. It simply sits on a rock existing

Ironically the only reason you posted your comment, is that you have that very capacity to enjoy problem solving

 

[Guy Threepwood]

According to my Bible, we are made in God's image. Doesn't speak well for Him.
Tom

Our own kids are made in our 'image', that doesn't mean they naturally inherent our better judgement (to the extent we have any!)

we all have to learn that for ourselves or it has no meaning

 

[Augustus]

'Ignorance is bliss'.
Would you rather be ignorant ?

Sorry, I don't get your point.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Just the Jewish POV...

"The Talmud states that the entire world belongs to God, Who created everything, and partaking in His creation without consent would be tantamount to stealing.18 When we acknowledge that our food comes from God, He grants us permission to partake in the world's pleasures. Thus we say a blessing before eating any food."

16. Blessings

Out of curiosity: why say it right before you eat it? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to ask permission and give thanks when you first take it from God (e.g. at the time of harvest/slaughter/etc.) instead?

Assuming that such a prayer was already done at harvest- or slaughter-time, hasn't that consent already been obtained?

... if it has been obtained. Isn't it presumptuous to assume consent just because you asked for it?

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Gratitude can serve as a wellspring of social consciousness.

 

[columbus]

Out of curiosity: why say it right before you eat it? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to ask permission and give thanks when you first take it from God (e.g. at the time of harvest/slaughter/etc.) instead?

Those aren't mutually exclusive.
Both seem quite appropriate to me. For similar reasons, expressing gratitude at different points in the process is a good thing.
By gratitude, I mean the recognition that it's all part of a thing much larger than we are individually. We are part of that unimaginably vast thing, each of us.
Gratitude is celebrating the huge thing that we are part of. Call that huge thing* whatever you want, but your individuality is just a small part of you.
Tom
* Some people call it God. YMMV

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Those aren't mutually exclusive.
Both seem quite appropriate to me. For similar reasons, expressing gratitude at different points in the process is a good thing.
By gratitude, I mean the recognition that it's all part of a thing much larger than we are individually. We are part of that unimaginably vast thing, each of us.
Gratitude is celebrating the huge thing that we are part of. Call that huge thing* whatever you want, but your individuality is just a small part of you.
Tom
* Some people call it God. YMMV

I was speaking to @rosends 's idea of partaking of food without saying grace to be theft.

If the farmer/butcher/etc. already got God's "consent" to take the food when it was gathered, then that's the point when it stopped being God's "property," not when it's placed on the table.

The chain of custody goes God>gatherer>preparer>consumer (possibly with other intermediaries, but hopefully you get my point). The consumer needs consent from the preparer, not God.

 

[A Vestigial Mote]

Consider that the content of the meal may have had a very sordid past. How does anyone think God might like to be thanked for the provision of a meal within which the vegetables picked were gotten by the hands of migrant workers who were being paid inadequately under-the-table, or under threat of being turned into immigration authorities if they complain?

How would God feel to be thanked, knowing the meat from the meal came from a factory farm where pigs are literally going insane because of their crated-caging?

How would God feel about being thanked for eggs that came from a whole host of female chickens bred for the purpose - the male chicks of those breeding processes having been fated to being suffocated en masse in large plastic bags and thrown in the garbage?

How does God feel being thanked for the cheese of a meal - that was able to be acquired only after the female cow the milk came from was forcibly impregnated, and her baby calf stolen away from her to either be raised the same as she was (if a girl) or crated so that they are unable to move in order to atrophy the muscles and produce veal (if a boy)?

If I were God, I would personally come down to tell you to take your thanks and shove it where the sun doesn't shine.

 

[Twilight Hue]

As I've often heard it said, there's no such thing as a free lunch, so no one, not even God, is actually "giving" us any food. The way food prices are these days, it would appear that those who supply us with food are being well compensated for their efforts, so even they don't need any more thanks than what they're getting.

As a kid, I remember we would say before each meal: "Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen."

Considering how many people go hungry in this world, it seems that God's blessings and generosity only go so far. In the West, a lot of food is wasted, and some people eat far more than they actually appear to need.

So, is "grace" just an empty gesture and empty words? Does it actually mean anything to most people, or is it just something we're supposed to say before a meal?

I remember saying grace when I was a kid.
If anything it's more traditionally based.

I just make food and eat it now.