# Do you get the "have a blessed day" invocation where you live (and are you bothered by it)? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 13, 2025, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-the-have-a-blessed-day-invocation-where-you-live-and-are-you-bothered-by-it/1025667 "2025-12-13T15:48:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-the-have-a-blessed-day-invocation-where-you-live-and-are-you-bothered-by-it/1025667/303 "2026-01-03T06:53:32Z")
How 'Bout them Cavs? ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-the-have-a-blessed-day-invocation-where-you-live-and-are-you-bothered-by-it/1025667/304 "2026-01-03T16:47:26Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > And I’d probably answer the same way as I do when told to have a merry Xmas: “No, thanks – don’t believe I’d care for one.” I just do not understand this type of response. All this does is make you look rude and nasty. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-the-have-a-blessed-day-invocation-where-you-live-and-are-you-bothered-by-it/1025667/305 "2026-01-03T17:16:21Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > It’s just challenging because there’s no way to explain why you’re an atheist without offending theists. There’s really no polite way to say, “I think this thing that is super important to you and fundamental to your identity is complete bullshit.” That’s not a nice thing to say to anyone. But I would be lying to pretend that’s not fundamentally my position. How do you sugar coat that? I finally wrote something like this to my born-again older sister. After years of constrained conversation (by email, the only way we communicate these days) she finally asked me, so I laid it out. I said I don’t respect those views as a reflection of reality, but that I was not interested in persuading anyone to change their beliefs or opinion. I don’t think she was surprised, and she didn’t really say anything further about it.’ This is not something I would do lightly with anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-the-have-a-blessed-day-invocation-where-you-live-and-are-you-bothered-by-it/1025667/306 "2026-01-03T17:19:51Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > But I might say something like, “I’ve been blessed with a wonderful husband.” I mean he is at least in the most symbolic sense a miracle, an amazing thing that happened that I can’t explain. Not an actual gift from a benevolent God but so out there I really don’t know what else to compare it to but a miracle. G. K. Chesterton has a quote that would really steam me, if I allowed it to: “The worst moment for an atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank.” What a moron. My tag line is partly in response to that quote. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2026, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-the-have-a-blessed-day-invocation-where-you-live-and-are-you-bothered-by-it/1025667/307 "2026-01-04T19:29:06Z")
Yeah, well he also said, “Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God.” While this seems to be true lately in the US, it is not by atheists’ efforts. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2026, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-the-have-a-blessed-day-invocation-where-you-live-and-are-you-bothered-by-it/1025667/308 "2026-01-04T21:49:23Z")
The Iranians can teach us everything there is to lnow about governments who believe they are chosen by some god to govern in that god’s stead per that god’s commands. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2026, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-the-have-a-blessed-day-invocation-where-you-live-and-are-you-bothered-by-it/1025667/309 "2026-01-04T22:00:29Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > “The worst moment for an atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank.” That’s interesting, I think the moments where I’m desperate for help and know that none is coming are the worst moments. I’m going through a thing now where I’d be praying every day, if I prayed. Oh, to believe this was all going to work out fine! That’s the rub. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-the-have-a-blessed-day-invocation-where-you-live-and-are-you-bothered-by-it/1025667/310 "2026-01-05T05:48:43Z")
Yeah, [I have mentioned before](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-the-worst-thing-about-being-an-atheist/983166/100) that being an atheist doesn’t always give me as much of a cognitive/emotional scope for nonspecific gratitude expression as I might prefer. But it is an extremely minor downside to an atheist worldview, at least IME. If that’s really the “worst moment” that I as an atheist can expect from my belief system, then thank—well, thank whatever or whoever for that! 🤣 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-get-the-have-a-blessed-day-invocation-where-you-live-and-are-you-bothered-by-it/1025667.md?page=15)