Godspeed

[Clivedurdle]

Should we deliberately use phrases like this? God bless you, etc?

We have not defined which god we are talking about!

As there aren't any gods:devil1: , is it not a surrealist post modern ironic thing to do?

Would it not actually be blasphemous?

[premjan]

God is probably a specified god right? Generally God means the Christian God.

[Sarpedon]

or goodbye, as its a contraction of 'God be with ye'

I've gotten into the habit of saying 'Until next time', or 'Farewell'.

[OldYgg]

I don't know where my son got it - but he's been correcting us on gesundheit with god bless you... Even his religious grandfather doesn't say it.

I get a little peeved about that.

Old Ygg

[Clivedurdle]

Are we worried about speaking the term god? Is this not a superstitious reaction? Is a lightning bolt going to get us?

Would we not be spreading cognitive dissonance by using the term god when we sneeze etc?

With me it is likely to be sol invictus one day, Zeus another - today it should be Thor!

[OldYgg]

No, my problem with it is that I haven't taught him the term, he's picked it up from somewhere else - probably his Aunt that thinks she would die if there was no god - or rather kill herself if there was no god.

And my parents - who are agnostics at best - say god bless you for some damnable reason.

The only time my son has heard the word god other than those is when my wife and I debate things about god. She's an agnostic, so we aren't arguing for god in any of these conversations.

Old Ygg

[Jolly_Penguin]

Godspeed? That does sound pretty fast, considering God is supposedly everywhere at once.

[Krosis]

Gesundheit means "Health" auf Deutsch so I use it all the time..

The only time I like hearing "Godspeed" is when I'm watching footage of Space shots from Mercury, Gemini and Apollo..

"Good Luck John Glenn... and Godspeed..." stuff like that. I dunno.. it just sounds.. poetic.. ? ;)

-A

[SundayMorning]

I felt really guilty and rude when I initially stopped saying god bless you. But it only made sense after denouncing religion and belief in gods to not say it.

Later on, after thinking about it some more I decided it's kind of weird to acknowledge a sneeze at all. It's a normal body function just like burping or passing gas. We don't wish people well when they fart.

In short, I don't use terms like god bless, or godspeed (even though it sounds cool) because people will more than likely think I am referring to and hold some type of belief in their god. I don't want that.

[Clivedurdle]

Anyone noticed the classic Anglican vicar, the two handed hand shake, the smile, the god bless you, the whole cadence of church services, the lord be with you etc.

It is very poetic, theatrical, at its best beautiful.

The English "good morning, good evening"

I think we need an atheist way of doing this and why not use the existing traditions?

Maybe after saying "god bless you", we should mumble, oh sorry, you might not want to be blessed by the god I am referring to!

[Clivedurdle]

Are xians actually atheistic about other gods? I thought they believed they did exist and were demons.

So saying god bless you, sorry I meant Baal might freak people out!

[Jolly_Penguin]

Later on, after thinking about it some more I decided it's kind of weird to acknowledge a sneeze at all. It's a normal body function just like burping or passing gas. We don't wish people well when they fart.


Indeed. Nor when they burp. In fact we often curse them for it. So perhaps we should start saying "to hell with you" when people sneeze. Y'know, for blowing their germs all over the place.

[OldYgg]

Indeed. Nor when they burp. In fact we often curse them for it. So perhaps we should start saying "to hell with you" when people sneeze. Y'know, for blowing their germs all over the place.

Those bums! Probably doing it on purpose like my 4-year-old. No wonder I get sick so much lately. Oh, that and the lack of sleep with the 8 month old.

Old Ygg

[DMB]

I wish I didn't use any such terms, but they are built-in from long habit. I expect it is "taking the name of the lord in vain", but when I hear something horrible, I often exclaim "Oh, god!" and when something really disgusts me it is usually "Jesus Christ!" Alternatives are things like "Fuck a duck!"

I wonder which is the most offensive? :devil3:

[OldYgg]

Hey, that's an easy one. "Jesus Christ" you'll hear occasionally on TV, "Fuck a duck!" you don't.

But I do wonder about one of my favorites when I was younger. "Jesus MotherFucking Christ." Hell, I remember adolescent conversations discussing exactly what that is supposed to mean. I don't think we came up with anything good, and I do wonder about the origin of that particular exclamation.

I used to have a bad potty mouth (as some people call it) I'm not so much now, but it is amazing that my kid picks up on just the right words, and I don't even have to be the one that said them.

Old Ygg

[Clivedurdle]

I wish I didn't use any such terms, but they are built-in from long habit. I expect it is "taking the name of the lord in vain", but when I hear something horrible, I often exclaim "Oh, god!" and when something really disgusts me it is usually "Jesus Christ!" Alternatives are things like "Fuck a duck!"

I wonder which is the most offensive? :devil3:

But why do we wish we did not say god? There aren't any! What are we frightened of for Christ's sake!

[naturalist.atheist]

or goodbye, as its a contraction of 'God be with ye'

I've gotten into the habit of saying 'Until next time', or 'Farewell'.

I suppose it is a blaphemous as a Christian calling the fifth day of the week Thursday (Thor's day). After all there is no Jesusday. (Yikes! Don't get any ideas you dang Christians!)

[Matty]

wasnt it originally "bless me" not "bless you" too?
AFAIK It was originally a spell used to protect the "recipient" from the demons and ill humours expelled by said sneeze.

About as scientifically valid as most modern day Xtian conversations so no real change there then.


I'm still please when i dont burst into flame upon entering a church for weddings etc , mind.

[OldYgg]

But why do we wish we did not say god? There aren't any! What are we frightened of for Christ's sake!

I think it is because the Christians use such subconscious blurting as proof that their god exists.

If that isn't an obnoxious way to prove your god entity exists, I don't know what is. There are several sayings out there and jokes at the expense of the atheist that says 'oh god' as he is about to be ingested by some predator.

So, I'm not afraid of any god's or anything like that and would not hesitate to blaspheme in the most holy church there is - but I don't want to say god bless you and even dammit and things like that could be used as [little girl pointing her finger at you 'seeee you do believe because if you didn't how could you say dammit when you don't believe in hell.'

Old Ygg

[Clivedurdle]

But saying the term god does not define which god! And there are excellent alternatives - By Jove! Ye gods!

Methinks we are letting theists have an unnecessary propaganda win!

I ain't afraid of no gods!

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,911125-1,00.html

http://www.compostcoven.org/compost/invo.html

Invoking the Gods

Once the Circle is cast, assemble in a circle around the Central candle to invoke the Goddess. You may use a formal invocation, or a wordless chant; you may wish to invoke one specific attribute of the Goddess depending on your particular needs. Study the Correspondences on Seven and read all the mythology you can, especially Graves, to become familiar with different aspects. Durdin-Robinson is extremely useful as a reference book, too. One invocation which works well for me is the following (be careful not to hyperventilate during this one--people have been known to collapse during it).

http://www.abaxion.com/xt06.htm

http://www.avalonia.co.uk/books/author_interviews/kala_trobe.htm

[OldYgg]

But saying the term god does not define which god! And there are excellent alternatives - By Jove! Ye gods!

Methinks we are letting theists have an unnecessary propaganda win!

I ain't afraid of no gods!

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,911125-1,00.html

http://www.compostcoven.org/compost/invo.html



http://www.abaxion.com/xt06.htm

http://www.avalonia.co.uk/books/author_interviews/kala_trobe.htm

The first article was really good - haven't had a chance to look at the others yet. Too bad the article did some serious backpedaling at the end.

Thanks,
Old Ygg

[OldYgg]

But saying the term god does not define which god! And there are excellent alternatives - By Jove! Ye gods!

Methinks we are letting theists have an unnecessary propaganda win!

I ain't afraid of no gods!

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,911125-1,00.html

http://www.compostcoven.org/compost/invo.html



http://www.abaxion.com/xt06.htm

http://www.avalonia.co.uk/books/author_interviews/kala_trobe.htm

Oh, you know, I just can't respect Wiccans that don't run around naked and take pictures of it...

Because you know, even I could be religious with the right environment - at least temporarily.

Old Ygg

[naturalist.atheist]

Should we deliberately use phrases like this? God bless you, etc?

Sure we can use them, but since we are atheists we can add to them.

We can say: 'God bless you" and then add " because nobody else will.'

Or 'Go with god' and add, ' and never come back.'

Or 'God loves you' and add, ' but that is it.'

Or 'God works miracles' and add, ' because in your case that is what it's gonna take.'

Or if they say 'I will pray for you', you can respond, 'I hope you have an intervention also.'

Have fun with it. At their expense of course. Then maybe they will eventually learn to keep it to themselves.

[Tom Sawyer]

Or if they say 'I will pray for you', you can respond, 'I hope you have an intervention also.'


I prefer "I'll think for you".

[naturalist.atheist]

I prefer "I'll think for you".

If only they meant it that way when they say it. But it is purely passive aggressive. So give as good as you get. Then maybe they will learn to be genuinely nice.

[Doug Shaver]

Should we deliberately use phrases like this? God bless you, etc?
Not if they make you uncomfortable. But should they? It depends. Original meaning does not control current meaning. In certain contexts, I can say them without being afraid of endorsing the ideas that were behind their origins.

[Clivedurdle]

I get the impression there be an elephant in the room about this subject.

The wiccan stuff, the concept of invocation, the idea of devil possession.

Article on the radio this morning about atrocities in Congo, and lack of any justice.

Another article about film Battle of Algiers - guy bombed a cafe 1964 and young children lost legs - he is now an Algerian senator but said it was a justifiable action.

I see humans who get trapped in ideologies - invoke political or war gods - and then take action. Then the ideology was anti colonialist, now it has become Islamicist.

We have xians invoking their jesusgod.

But the issue is that invoking gods is a psychological game we play with ourselves to give us strength or the will to do something or the other. Some love their gods so much that they lose all moral sense and commit atrocities.

It is therefore important for us to invoke gods as well - as symbols of the world we wish to see. Our brains work like this - go with the flow.

[naturalist.atheist]

It is therefore important for us to invoke gods as well - as symbols of the world we wish to see. Our brains work like this - go with the flow.

Because some people allow their empathy to run amok is no excuse for everyone to do it.

[Sarpedon]

oh, I sometimes bless people. I never say "God Bless You," but I sometimes bless people on my own initiative. I guarantee that my blessings are every bit as effective as the Pope's.

[naturalist.atheist]

oh, I sometimes bless people. I never say "God Bless You," but I sometimes bless people on my own initiative. I guarantee that my blessings are every bit as effective as the Pope's.

Probably better since you are there and the pope is not.

[OldYgg]

I get the impression there be an elephant in the room about this subject.

The wiccan stuff, the concept of invocation, the idea of devil possession.

Article on the radio this morning about atrocities in Congo, and lack of any justice.

Another article about film Battle of Algiers - guy bombed a cafe 1964 and young children lost legs - he is now an Algerian senator but said it was a justifiable action.

I see humans who get trapped in ideologies - invoke political or war gods - and then take action. Then the ideology was anti colonialist, now it has become Islamicist.

We have xians invoking their jesusgod.

But the issue is that invoking gods is a psychological game we play with ourselves to give us strength or the will to do something or the other. Some love their gods so much that they lose all moral sense and commit atrocities.

It is therefore important for us to invoke gods as well - as symbols of the world we wish to see. Our brains work like this - go with the flow.

I just can't do that. The only difference between saying god bless you and fairly bless you is that a crapload of people believe in god.

The other problem I have with this whole thing is about an assertion of power.

When someone says 'god bless you' they are asserting their power - their beliefs on to me. Yeah, it habit. So what. Do they even ask if I want their god's blessing. I mean god damn (!) in one fell swoop they have ascertained their gods existence and dominion over me.

I may never sneeze again!

Ahhh cho!

And you know, not even my father-in-law who is very religious says God Bless you... He's part Germain and like Gesundheit much better.


Old Ygg

[DMB]

The only reason I regret saying these things automatically has nothing to do with fear of gods. I don't like giving even the smallest encouragement to the sort of xians who will claim I do believe in their imaginary friend after all. If I exclaim, "Fuck a duck!" would they either go off and do it, or think that I am going to do it?

How about if one gives vent to one's feelings by yelling "Shit!"? Does anyone feel obliged to vent their bowels? Which reminds me of the ancient joke:

A: "Shit!"
B: "...said the king -- and forty-thousand loyal arseholes heaved and strained."

I don't think that any of these habitual sayings, often coming out in moments of stress, or at least surprise, mean very much. But why on earth do we need to say anything to invoke blessings, religious or otherwise, on the head of a sneezer? I suffer from hayfever and all the "Bless you"s when I sneeze drive me to distraction. I never bless anyone, ever.

[XanderG]

I've thought about this as well, mainly because (yes out of habit) I say a lot things like: "For God's sake" and "Jesus Christ", and I really wanted to differentiate myself from that due to what people assume by those statements.

However the one time I corrected myself on it and said "By Zeus" I was attacked (verbally I hasten to add) by one of my friends for not being tolerant of other peoples' beliefs! Thankfully I argued reasonably enough to convince the other friend there that I wasn't an intolerant bigot and there were reasons for my exclamation.

But I digress, to avoid the use of overly Judeo-Christian exclamations, I decided to try and be creative and find some obscure gods that I could then play around with. For example: "By the many arms of Na Kika!". Na Kika (http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/oceanic-mythology.php?deity=NA-KIKA) of course is an oceanic octupus god, who helped build the world with his many hands along with two spiders.

One of the reasons I think I still use 'God' is that it has a nice hard sound to it, excellent for profanities. Also out of habit. To try and cure myself of this I found a god with a similar, yet subtley different name, Hod (http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/norse-mythology.php?deity=HOD). Hod is the blind son of Odin, so even if he can hear me blaspheme, he won't be able to catch me!

And finally if all of these fail to titillate, there's always that old Gaulic favourite, "By Toutatis!".

[Clivedurdle]

Has anyone collected these sayings?

I did not understand why it is not pc to say by Zeus - have I lost the plot somewhere?

I have started saying live long and prosper, but a series of sayings for any eventuality would be wonderful!

[JamesBannon]

I can't see what the big deal is. I say 'bless you when someone sneezes and think nothing of it. When I was in holiday in Austria everybody used to say "Gruss got" (God be with you - German speakers please forgive my awful spelling) as a greeting. I just used to respond "and you too". What's the big deal? It's just politeness.

[naturalist.atheist]

I can't see what the big deal is. I say 'bless you when someone sneezes and think nothing of it. When I was in holiday in Austria everybody used to say "Gruss got" (God be with you - German speakers please forgive my awful spelling) as a greeting. I just used to respond "and you too". What's the big deal? It's just politeness.

Well the Christians in the US have become an intolerant, in your face, know what's best for you, roudy bunch that all need to be sent to heaven as soon as possible. But for some strange reason when you offer to send them there they don't want to go, but many of them are praying and hoping for the rapture as hard as they can. They have gone insane.

[JamesBannon]

Well the Christians in the US have become an intolerant, in your face, know what's best for you, roudy bunch that all need to be sent to heaven as soon as possible. But for some strange reason when you offer to send them there they don't want to go, but many of them are praying and hoping for the rapture as hard as they can. They have gone insane.
No doubt about that! We had to suffer an invasion of these turds during our election:mad:. Luckily, although we Scots aren't exactly the brightest bulb in the biosphere, we did at least manage to see through this kind of garbage.

[OldYgg]

Has anyone collected these sayings?

I did not understand why it is not pc to say by Zeus - have I lost the plot somewhere?

I have started saying live long and prosper, but a series of sayings for any eventuality would be wonderful!

Heh, I think Live Long and Prosper can go just about anywhen, except well, on your death bed. :)

Old Ygg

[OldYgg]

Every once in a great while I have to go to a church. They have these catch phrases at the Anglican church that my wife's grandfather preached at - that I just don't get.

They say something, people respond with something...

Then there is this one part when they all say something and start coming at you like a bunch of tigers, but they are at least hugging each other.

I haven't bothered to learn the catch phrases, since I only go there when people die or get married. A bunch of damned crazyness.

Next thing you know etching half of a fish in the ground will be back in style.

Old Ygg

[amaradulcis_nyx]

Godspeed? That does sound pretty fast, considering God is supposedly everywhere at once.

All I can think of when I hear that phrase is the Eddie Izzard bit about godspeed with god driving a fast convertible with a cigar and shouting at people to get out of the way. :D

[Clivedurdle]

Yorse in baby Jesus and all th litl dinosores.

From Rickity Sue!

:notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy:

[WWJD4aKlondikeBar]

When someone sneezes I tend to go old school and say, "May demons not fly up your nose!"

[MikeC2103]

"May the Imaginary Being of your choice, bless you"

"Gesundheit"

"Eww, cover your mouth!"

Nothing..

[steamer]

oh, I sometimes bless people. I never say "God Bless You," but I sometimes bless people on my own initiative. I guarantee that my blessings are every bit as effective as the Pope's.

I say "bless you" as well, usually accompanied by making a large sign of the cross like the pope does when he blesses people.

I think it is really a form of passive aggressiveness. The POWS in WWII being forced to bow to their captors would also bow to ants and fence-posts. Perhaps after saying bless you I could also bless one of their shoes.

[OldYgg]

"May the Imaginary Being of your choice, bless you"

"Gesundheit"

"Eww, cover your mouth!"

Nothing..

"Eww, cover your mouth!" - is a big one with me when my 4 year old sneezes all over me.... Nasty ass - I think he does it on purpose sometimes, but I'm not entirely sure.

Old Ygg

[dendrast]

It's obviously a contraction for "god has peed", referring, of course, to the story of Jove inseminating yet another poor unfortunate mortal woman that he took a fancy to.