Seriously, this bothers me. I’m not the most religious guy (I live with my girlfriend. for Pete’s sake) but I really try not to take the name of the God I believe in in vain. I hear all sorts of people saying “G-d Damn this, that or the other thing” many times every day, and it bothers me no matter who says it. However, it bothers me immensely when atheists/agnostics/non-theists say this particular phrase. If we just had a discussion TEN MINUTES AGO about how you DON’T BELIEVE IN GOD, then don’t ask him to Damn something for you. Take a stance, don’t just ask for favors from some entity you don’t believe in.
Are you always so literal-minded? Colloquialisms must really give you fits.
It’s a figure of speech.
Do phrases like, “Jesus H. Christ, look at the size of that thing!” bother you?
I think it has to do more with the flow of the words, actuallly. “The damn fax machine isn’t working” doesn’t have the same musical ring as “The goddam fax machine isn’t working!” The two syllables, verses the single have more of a musical ring, I suppose.
Using “God” in swearing is more of a reflex, I think. It’s such a pouplar swear that it’s the first thing that pops into one’s mind. “Oh, my God,” another perrinial favorite, has nothing much to do with the Almighty. You’re not asking him/her/it for anything. It’s merely an exclamation. It has a better ring to it than, for example, the girl from last year’s “Survivor” who used “Oh, my hat!” It sounds more serious and has more ooph than “Oh, dear!”
Figure o’ speech, guy. There are plenty of references to God out there
God damn
Oh my God
Thank God
Jesus Christ!
Holy shit!
etc. They don’t necessarily imply a belief in the Almighty, just like saying “Fuck you” doesn’t necessarily mean I want to get to know you in the biblical sense (as it were).
If it makes you feel any better, I’ve taken to saying “Praise Allah” instead of “Thank God”. That way I can be more of an equal opportunity offender.
If this bothers you then I am worried about you.
God-damn is a figure of speech - not a request for god to damn something.
If I say ‘shit’ after stubbing my toe. I am not asking people near me to take a dump on the floor.
No, I’m not always this literal-minded, and yes, I understand it is a figure of speech. I just find it offensive that one can’t even put the thought into realizing that they are asking someone/something they do not believe in or outright denounce for favors.
Ok, so it’s lame. Oh well, on to some other pithy thing.
I take his name in vain when I’m pissed.
But I also call him out during sex.
I’d call it even.
This ranks as one of the best replies I’ve ever seen.
May The Invisible Pink Unicorn spare you further ridicule in this thread.
It still worries me that you are bothered about something this trivial.
(And I can’t believe how many people were typing replies while I was typing mine, I thought I was going to be the first to say ‘figure of speech’)
As I mentioned in my other post - we are not asking someone/thing we don’t believe in to damn something. Our "god-damn"s mean something else entirely.
And words are just words. Imagine if there was a language that co-incidentaly had a word ‘God’ which meant ‘kiss’, and ‘damn’ which meant ‘me’. what would they be asking if they said “god damn”
a different language uses the words differently, just as a different culture/belief system (atheists) use them differently.
Incedentaly I hardly ever use the Word ‘God’ in that way.
When Jed Clampett exclaimed “Wee doggies”, he was not referring to tiny puppies.
It’s just an expression of emotion and few actually mean it to literally mean that they want God to damn anything at all. It is sort of like someone calling a female a " son of a bitch". Now we all know that that is impossible but people say it anyway.
FWIW, this isn’t something I’ve been mulling over and has been eating away at me for years or anything. This all came about in a discussion with a non-religious friend (he won’t declare atheism, but I don’t know what to call his belief system) where he uses the phrase “Gosh-damn it”. I asked him why he said it that way, and his reply was consistent with my OP question, “Why would I ask a God I don’t believe in to damn something?” That’s what got tthis whole thought going in my head. So I got bored and asked here, because after he put it that way, I saw that perspective of it.
Was it Pratchett who said “The reason not to be an atheist is that ‘Goddamn it’ is much more succinct than ‘Curse these random quantum fluctuations in the space-time continuum’”? Well, whoever the hell said that got it half right – that’s not a reason not to be an atheist, but it’s a goddamned good reason to say “goddamn it” (or “bloody hell” or “fucking hell” or “Jesus Herbert Christ” or whatever).
So sorry not everyone is a member of your exclusive little social club. I didn’t realize you guys had a monopoly on words (this is where I would use the rolleyes smiley if I didn’t hate that goddamn thing.)
I don’t know that I have ever heard this. Usually, we (myself and those I associate with) would just drop the “son-of-a” and flat out call her a bitch.
Oh well, Diffrent Strokes, I guess.
So sorry that my analyzation of a sentence nearly caused you to use the dreaded rolleyes.
Seriously, AFAIK, when speaking the Lower Peninsula of Michigan dialect of the Americanized English language (so many bad caps in there…), god/God is a noun, damn is a verb and it is a direct object. So, in effect, a person saying this phrase would technically, as I see it, be asking for this. Am I wrong? Depends on your perspective. About 80% probably feel like giving me a :smack: :wally for this post, but I have my opinion. I also see it as a good debate, is it a colloquialism or is it a request, is wmulax93 an idiot or is he just bored, etc.
I am pretty sure that was my mentor Lu-Tze