I found out later in life she cursed like a sailor.
She cleaned up her language for us kids.
Go back and read my post. No doubt it’s technically true that probably very few users say it to spite atheists. And no doubt that equally few atheists think so. Nevertheless both statements are so astronomically far from the point that they can’t be seen with telescopes.
I once worked with someone who would say “Hail Satan” when a coworker sneezed.
Unless you go around with a sign that says “I’m an atheist” how would a store clerk know you’re the one to aggravate? That’s a touch paranoid.
They say it without thinking. Like any valediction.
You don’t get it. Nobody expects anyone to spot atheists (or other non-Christians) by their looks, but it’s the default assumption that everyone is a fellow Christian that bothers many people, and rightly so.
I rarely disagree with you Beck, but that’s not how it works at all.
I would prefer that people don’t make assumptions about who I am. Simple.
'Zactly.
It’s their unthinking assumption that not only an I an Xian, but a fellow demonstrative fundamentalist Xian. Those are the people who say “have a blessed day”. And they’re not offering me a blessing. They’re saying “I know you rate one because I know you’re an Xian just like me.”
Sorry honey; you’re wrong. You’re actively offensively in my face wrong.
I haven’t read this yet, but yes and yes.
Change Sf to Seattle area and this is my exact response. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it here, but I have when travelling in the South and Southeast.
But I’m not supposed to say “Happy Holidays!” at this time of year.
If it wasn’t for double standards, most of these people would have no standards at all.
I hear Have a Blessed Day pretty regularly, and almost exclusively from people of color. It doesn’t bother me in the least. If it did bug me I might respond “You have a best day, too!”
And when someone sneezes I simply say “Jesus Christ, thanks for the shower!”
mmm
I’m in Michigan, and it’s getting much more frequent. It irritates me because yes some/many people say it, it isn’t the norm and they know it. I got it from a phone customer service person recently who also used god and Jesus when reading alpha numeric codes to me as in 850 jag w were Jesus apple god woman. It seems to me they want you to know how very Christiany they are.
One lady used to out and out say God bless you every time she finished her transaction. I worked with a bit more in your face Atheist than I am, and he told her to please stop doing that. She actually did stop.
I always want to say, “Blessed be,” and see what reaction I’d get.
“Tell you what. I won’t rub my atheism in your face if you’ll stop rubbing your Christianity in mine. Let’s each extend common courtesy to one another and stick to neutral pleasantries, shall we? Thanks!”
That’s by far the best most mature answer. Beats my splenetic fantasizing all to heck.
Shame they tend to drop their B-bomb just before I’m walking out or hanging up. Where / when I’m already mentally halfway into my next activity and disinclined to tarry further to reeducate the hopeless.
Passive aggressive Christianity is a particular peeve of mine (one of many!), so I will often slow just long enough to express my displeasure at their assumption in some perfectly polite but firm way. It usually shuts them up.
‘Common courtesy? Neutral pleasantries?’
‘So you’re one of those NVEs (Nihilistic Violent Extremists) seeking to cause indiscriminate chaos, destruction, and social instability, and bring about the collapse of society that the FBI has been warning us about?’
LOL, oh, I’m sure my stock response earns me a red pin stuck into a map for when the Civil War™ breaks out. 
( at them, not you.)
Honestly, my life isn’t blessed enough for this to merit anything on any scale. Life is hard enough. I don’t need to make myself even less happy by letting these strangers change how I feel. And I am not going to be able to stop them even I did care. I will just seem like an asshole, and thus make things worse.
Maybe if you’re actually my friend, I might sit down and politely tell you that I don’t particularly like it. But then the only friends I would have that would do that would be doing it without any of the “I need to show off how Christian I am” meaning behind it. People who need to show that off can’t be my friend.
It would just be a stock phrase.
Oh, it gets better than that. Way better, and the cringe-worthy act was perpetrated by none other than this well-meaning pup. When I worked for a major computer company, I did a lot of traveling, as did most other employees. One day, at an airport, I ran into a product manager I knew. I really liked and admired him. Excited to see him, I unthinkingly blurted out “I haven’t seen you in a coon’s age!” Which takes on cringe-worthy significance when you understand that the product manager was Black.
But we were friends and he knew I meant no harm and we had a cheerful conversation. But how I wished I could take back those words! That unfortunate expression stuck in my head because it was frequently used by an old Saskatchewan farmer I knew.
I’m not joking about this. Figure out the equivalent of “Have a blessed day” in various religions. A online search tells me that it’s “Barakallahu feek” in Islam, “Shabbat shalom” in Judaism, “Namaste” in Hinduism, and “Wànfú” in Confucianism. Find out the equivalent in other religions, including Paganism, Wicca, Agnosticism, and Atheism. Tell them a different one each time a particular person tells you “Have a blessed day”. If they ask why you’re using a different reply, tell them you just converted. If they say that you’re annoying them by giving the reply in a religion they don’t belong to, tell them that they annoyed you in the same way.