and to a reference to an esoteric language Lojban.
I agree with the other needlessly complicated analogies, but I forgot / should have explained that Lojban has a very logical structure where a word can have certain specific required or optional complements, e.g. IIRC the "expressing thanks" word would have a complement slot for (Target), a second slot for (what the thanks is for) and then one for (who is thanking the target) (defaults to speaker or provided by context), and in Lojban it's perfectly normal to leave some slots empty for deliberate ambiguity/vagueness (but explicit ambiguity, unlike most natural languages).
So the reason I mentioned it is that this may be where I got this lack of any particular issue with empty/confused targets and could also be why my mind doesn't seem to generate any aliefs from it as it seems yours might. There are other plausible explanations, but I doubt a test for that is feasible or relevant.
Well, I used to think that I do not believe in anything supernatural that affects what happens to me, but I'm wondering if maybe I actually do alieve in it. For example, a few days ago I had a close call in traffic, and when a collision I fully expected to happen just a second prior did not transpire, I mentally thanked... whom? I definitely had a clear feeling of gratitude for escaping, and I don't normally mean it literally when I say "Thank God!". So, who or what did I feel thankful to? I've never been religious, and I got rid of most of my superstitions over the years, but apparently there is still something there, and I do not know how to react to this knowledge.
What would be the proper reaction after a close call? Shrug and say "got lucky this time, should be more cautious next time"? What about when waiting for a diagnosis, what does sort-of-praying "please, please, let everything be OK" say about one's true beliefs? I know that I am much better at not blaming the world when something bad happens to me by chance than at not thanking the world when something good happens. Should it not be symmetric? Which part of a normally non-religious person wakes up and asserts itself in a crisis situation out of their control? Should it be embraced, suppressed, worked on?