Myth:
Atheists must be miserable and lonely when they feel thankful but look around and realize that they have no one to thank.
Response:
Religious theists, and especially Christians, often seem to be giving public thanks to their god for one thing or another. Perhaps it is thus understandable that they would have trouble imaging that irreligious atheists who don't believe in any gods would have anyone to thank. The truth is, though, we do — it's just that we can thank the people who are directly responsible for whatever good fortune we are thankful for. We don't ignore them in favor of an irrelevant, imaginary being.
Perhaps the most obvious humans to whom we might give thanks to would be the farmers responsible for providing us with the food we eat. Although massive corporations have taken over significant aspects of food production and distribution, small farmers continue to play an important role in growing, raising, and providing what we eat every day. Most people are far removed from food production and forget what's involved.
Even more commonly forgotten are probably doctors and researchers responsible for modern medicine. Whenever a Christian is cured of some disease or healed of some injury they are quick to thank God, but what about the doctors and nurses who did all the work? Most of the medicine we take for granted is of recent vintage and medical research is helping make more and more conditions treatable, if not curable. Many of us would be dead several times over if it weren't for modern medicine; clearly, if any gods could be at all responsible, they could have improved our situation much sooner. It took humans to discover what needs to be done and then to do the work, so they are the ones who should be thanked.
While we're on the subject of modern advances, we shouldn’t' forget modern technology and engineering as well. When a Christian survives a crash, they commonly thank God — as if those who didn't survive were for some reason insufficiently pleasing to God. Far better would be to thank all those engineers who have worked so hard to make cars, planes, trains, and everything else so much safer than they once were. Gods weren't responsible for people dying before the safety improvements were made and they aren't responsible for people surviving now that things are being constructed to be more safe.
In the background of all this are, of course, the scientists. Science has been instrumental in improving what farmers can grow, what doctors can treat, what engineers can build, and much more. Science and scientists are the ones who have helped make our world more understandable and hence have improved our ability to live in it. When was the last time a Christian offered up thanks to the science that makes possible most of what they take for granted in their lives?
Finally, it would be wrong to forget all the friends and family who are part of our lives. No person is an island; who we are is dependent upon those around us and we should stop to give thanks to friends and family who help us, support us, and generally make life worth living for us. There are an awful lot of people to whom we should give thanks, all because of their responsibility in helping us either to live at all or to simply live better.
A common thread in all of these cases is precisely the fact that it is humans who are responsible for that for which we should be thankful, and therefore it is humans whom we should be thanking. At no point are gods involved in any way. Gods are irrelevant because, even if they exist, they aren't responsible for that for which we should be thankful, thus there is no point in thanking them.
Thanking irrelevant gods is ultimately an insult to the humans who are genuinely responsible for what happens to us. It suggests that all the time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears we expend in improving ourselves and in improving the lives of those around us are ultimately wasted because the outcome will be determined by God, regardless of what we do. Whether for good or for ill, our fates lie in our hands — whether a problem is caused by us or by circumstances beyond our control, we must take responsibility for solving them.
This is why it's a myth to claim that atheists have no one thank when we are feeling thankful. It's not that we have no one to thank, it's just that we recognize that there are no gods that need to be thanked or that are worth thanking. Instead, we should thank the people who are responsible for whatever we are thankful for. Suggesting that we have no one to thank, and thus must be miserable and lonely, is just an attempt to portray atheism as something which leads to depression and a meaningless life.
This is a common tactic for some religious theists; they can't come up with any arguments to show that theism is right and atheism is wrong, so they pretend that they can substitute false and fallacious arguments about the alleged consequences of atheism. Even if the religious theists promulgating this myth were right, they wouldn't be making a case for their theism being true. Not having anyone to thank isn't a reason to be a theist unless you simply don't care about the truth.
